Momnesia

Tears and blood are unavoidable, but I have to try

Emmie and I are at a birthday party for the lovely and talented Mary Anne when I see several children piling onto a Radio Flyer tricycle.

"Mm-mm, that is not going to end well," I mutter to a friend and go over to put a stop to it.

"Guys, this is going to spectacularly wrong in a very amount of short time," I caution. They look at each other and reluctantly dismount. Emmie is less compliant.

"Doodle," I say. "Come on."

"Okaaaaay," she sighs, and the remaining child pedals on without her.

"Babe, what's going to happen?"

"Ummm... I'm goeend fall off and hurt myself?"

"Right. And then there will be tears and blood. What's our motto? No tears no blood," I say, and Mary Anne's husband chuckles from within the plume of smoke that engulfs the grill.

"Actually, I just made that up," I confess. "But I like it."

"Emmie!" I call. "That's gonna be our motto. No tears no blood."

"Okay," she calls as she wanders off to injure herself in some other way, likely wondering what a 'motto' is.

"What's our motto?"

"No tears no blood!" she calls.

"What?"

She stops, grins, and yells like a drill seargent: "NO TEARS NO BLOOD!"

"Awesome!"

I adopted that motto for the weekend, trotting it out whenever tears or blood seemed pending.

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Emmie tripping in her new flip-flops, going down hard in the grass in front of the house. A keening in her throat.

"What's the motto?"

She drew a breath and composed herself: "No tears no blood."

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Emmie careening out-of-control on her scooter, frightened and out of my reach, down the path at the Columbia County Amphitheatre.

"MOOOOM!" she shrieked, back foot off kilter so the brake wouldn't engage, wobbling dangerously.

"Motto, Em!" I called, tensing for the pending scene of destruction.

"NO TEARS NO BLOOD!" she shrieked, just this side of hysterical - then she got her scooter under control on her own. I bent over to calm my shaking legs while my father-in-law patted my shoulder. No tears no blood, indeed.

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And when shortly after arriving at her grandparents house she changed her mind and decided she'd rather not stay, I pulled it out again.

"No what, Em?"

She smiled, "No tears no blood. But I don' fink I hafta worry wif Nona an' Opa."

Gosh... Put it all in perspective, and they shape right up!