Eya the Flying Monkey

First parents are typically neurotic. First parents whose first child knocks out her front tooth at age two are comparably more neurotic, bordering on paranoid. But parents whose child refuses to be cautious and performs death-defying acts as a normal routine become calloused and start yawning when their children taunt death and dismemberment.

This has become me. (Michael is still in the paranoid category.) There is only so many gasps allotted to mothers and Evelyn has used my quota for her lifetime. I do feel at times somewhat guilty when I'm at the playground and Evelyn's leading a bunch of children four times her age in a game of "Hey, I can do that!" The parents of these 8 to 12 years old glare at me as I shrug my shoulders and allow my two-year-old to be a bad example. They may wonder why I don't stop my kid; don't I see that she's likely to kill herself?! My answer is it is more healthy for my heart to look the other direction. Besides, she doesn't stop. If I pick her up and pull her away, she starts using ME as her jungle gym. No thank you.

But in a few more months we will be enrolling Evelyn in a tumbling class so she can at least learn how to fall without hurting herself. (Actually, she's already become quite good at it.)