you know the situation, you're doing something, are focused, busy - and suddenly this scream... pure naked fear, from deep within, volumes unheard of, nobody you know could ever holler like that. freezing your blood and melting your brain at the same time... a scream that makes your legs jump up by themselves, not even touching the ground, running... a scream straight from the animal kingdom - genuine instinct, like millions of years ago, on africa's savannah, one week after we descended from the trees. wednesdays...

had that today... i was in the chicken pen, far from the house, behind a two story building! where normally you CANNOT hear a scream from the livingroom window - impossible. must have been a bent in time and space. anyhow, about 2 microseconds later i was at said livingroom window. and in this unimaginable long stretch of time three certainties sank into my boiling brain:
1. if mommy is screaming like that, she already exploited all other alternatives,
2. i dont know more than she does, if that much, so
3. this must be the end...

luckily it wasnt, not quite. vicky fell in her play pen. was a little too tired (but as unwilling to just lay down!) and despite the thick quilt on the floor was bleeding a bit from her lip or tooth or jaw. it was not easily detectable where exactly the blood came from, but it was there, signal red!

admittably, it was _VERY LITTLE_ blood, but the panic was still understandable... just the way it goes the first time around... and mommy with the kid all alone in the room!

luckily we were having visitors with a little more experience with "this" due to their three-year-old, which made the relaxation & recovery somewhat easier and quicker. but now we have made it, our first "blood experience", so there!