Today's Daily Meltdown Brought to You By...

After our day yesterday, we pretty much didn't do anything today.  The children were content to draw and play, and Hibiscus spent a lot of the day upstairs getting her hair tied up in special yarn braids.  Which is an excellent activity, because she feels nice and special, and she can't get into any trouble while being held down by her hair.  Kind of an enforced rest that her body refuses to admit that she needs.  It was also really neat to watch Emerson and Buttercup playing together without her.  Emerson interacted a lot more directly with Buttercup, which made her happy, and his style naturally became more slow and gentle while playing with her.  They piled chairs and pillows around as forts, and played doctor together.

Our daily late-afternoon-nose-dive was brought on by an argument over -- are you ready for this absurdity? -- whether or not Hibiscus should have on BOTH in-line skates.  Near the stairs.  Sitting with her feet hanging over the stairs.  No, actually skating ON the stairs.  Yes, the same stairs that opened up her skull a mere 24 hours earlier.  She whined and tried to show me how safely she would skate on the stairs.  And lest there is any of the slightest doubt that I was being an overprotective mother, all the other kids, from the 2-year-old on up, were watching the argument with their mouths literally hanging open and staring at Hibiscus with the clear expression "are you out of your GOURD???!!!"  When I told her about how I didn't want her to fall again, every other child there chimed in with assurances of the same.  

You are probably wondering why this was a discussion at all.  I was trying to not get into a physical fight on the actual steps.  Hibiscus eventually climbed back up onto the grass, ceding the stair argument but hoping to keep both skates.  (The skates belong to the neighbor, so they are too large for her, and she is only allowed to skate with one of them at a time.  I have had visions of a bloody head for quite some time.)  I chased after her to get the skates off, and the neighbor boy, who usually laughs at her antics and keeps well out of things, helped me tackle her and unbuckle the skates.

The rest of the evening went more or less like that.