Yesterday was a best of times, worst of times day.

It started off with a cute little episode at Jeanie's house. When JoJo and I arrived, Ashley was at the top of the stairs. Ashley doesn't talk much, but she has waved at us before. When JoJo sees her, she crawls from Jeanie's arms and heads up the stairs. Halfway up the stairs turn right, and JoJo stops. Jeanie goes and gets her and brings her back down. Ashley is still watching. JoJo tries again. She gets the the halfway mark and stops again. She looks at us, then up at Ashley. And here's the cute part: Ashley is standing there, beckoning her to come up the stairs, and JoJo smiles and heads up to her. When she gets to the top step she stops because she still doesn't know what to do when there's not another step to hold on to, so Jeanie rescues her again. She smiles at Ashley when she finally reaches the top. JoJo has her first friend.

And here's the worst... Ever since JoJo started wanting to stand on the dining room chairs, I have had this fear of her falling off. She doesn't watch the edge well, and although she's getting good at sitting down and sliding off, if someone is next to her, she just reaches over and expects to be caught. And therein lies the scare. She was facing the table, pen in hand, doodling on a piece of paper and I took my eyes off of her to look at my computer, to see if it was my turn on a chess game I was playing. Out of the corner of my eye I see her reaching toward me, and I grab at her, but I miss, and she goes SPLAT! face down on the ground. What's worse is that she doesn't cry - she just lies there. I reach for her, and she finally starts crying. Then she stops again, and I yell for Sheryl to come over, because I am fearing the worst, and I feel more horrible than I've ever felt in my life. She finally starts crying again after 5-6 seconds, and Sheryl takes her. I sit at the table, numb, cursing myself for being so stupid, scared that she is really hurt. The rest of the night, I check her face for bruises, look up baby concussion info on the net, and worry, worry, worry.

JoJo goes to sleep at 9 and wakes up at 11:30, crying. Sheryl takes her and I go back to sleep; at 1:30, Sheryl hands her to me, and says that she hasn't had any sleep, and goes back to the couch. I sit up and hold her and pat her back, and try to calm her down until about 2:30 am. While holding her, I go online and call in sick. I have been coughing, losing my voice, and compounded with no sleep and JoJo's cough, there is no way I am facing 80 kindergartners and 3 other classes!

Now at the end of the next day, I can say JoJo is OK - no sign that she has fallen at all. I almost feel better, but it was really nice to hang out and relax with JoJo. My voice didn't get much rest because she insisted I read If I Were a Moose and her Eric Carle books over and over again. Her favorite new word is "rea," which means, "I have a book in my hand, and I don't care what you're doing, we're reading it right now." And, in this case, she gets what she wants, because I love reading!