"I stuck!"

Monday night, TJ and Sam went down the street to play with a friend. That allowed me to get a few things accomplished while Nolan watched an Elmo DVD. While I was changing the sheets on our bed, Nolan wandered down to see what I was up to. He stood at the end of the bed chattering away while I tucked in the blanket. Suddenly, Nolan said, "Mama. I stuck." I looked down at him and saw he had put one leg between the slats of my foot board. He then tried to put his foot all the way down to the ground and got his chubby little leg wedged tightly. To make matters worse, his foot was completely underneath the bed frame. I knelt down and tried to pull his leg out, but I needed to pull his leg and turn it at the same time. I couldn't get it to budge. I tried several times while Nolan yelled in protest.

I finally realized I could not get Nolan out without some help. Bill was in the basement, putting up the trim in the family room. I started shouting his name, but he couldn't hear me. I was yelling as loudly as I possibly could, but he wasn't coming. I was starting to feel a tiny bit panicky. Due to his awkward position, Nolan was relying on me to help him support his weight. I finally convinced him to hold on to the slats tight and I ran to the top of the stairs and yelled for Bill one more time. This time he heard me and came running up the stairs. He was able to help me, but he had to lift both the mattress and the box spring before I was finally able to get Nolan free. I was very relieved and wondered what I would have done if Bill had not been home.

Nolan was remarkably unscathed by the whole ordeal. In fact, the little turkey seemed to find it funny afterwards. For the rest of the evening, he kept walking past me and saying in a little sing-song voice, "Bill! I stuck!" Then he'd grin at me and say, "Do it again, Mama?"

Story #2:
Last week, Sam and Nolan were jumping on the couch, which is a big no-no. As I was telling them to get down before someone fell and got hurt, Nolan fell off the side of the couch. And got hurt. He had a big rug burn on the back of his right forearm. I would say it was an inch and a half wide, and three or four inches long. It was ugly. It is finally starting to heal. This morning I was looking at it and telling Nolan how happy I was that his owie was getting better.

Nolan looked up me very matter-of-factly and said, "Another owie comin' soon."