Today, with both of the kids at home feeling reasonably well, we went outside. Madeline bundled Jack up along with herself and we kicked the ball around some in the backyard. I have been clearing a tree out from the corner of the yard, and I stepped back there to view my handy work. Two trunks remain on this tree, down from about 13. The last two lean over my neighbors fence and I've been considering the options for cutting these hold outs. However, in between now and then, it has several foot holds and Jack likes peering over the privacy fence. "Cars," which he says like "hires" and "Trucks!" with a grunt right from the gut pointing out the miscellaneous toys in the yard and on the deck. "I can climb higher Daddy," Madeline says.
She only gets so far, there aren't many branches to hold on to anymore, and so she ran to her old favorite, Terra and Madeline have climbed this tree for the last several years to daring heights.
"See Daddy!" I acknowledge how high she is in this tree. Very high. Jack's demanding a little more attention as he's taking new steps on the other tree, and looking more intently at all the neighbor's yard has to offer.
I hear Madeline say, "I'm scared," which I've heard before, too. I say, "I'm keeping a hold of Jack, he's not so good at this." Then a dozen seconds a loud "SNAP," echos from Madeline's direction, clearly a limb broke. I quickly turned my head to the left to see the scariest thing I've seen with my kids. Madeline falling from about 15 feet.
Terra was bucked off a horse once, and it's amazing how the eye and brain can process all the stimuli. Everything moves so slowly. The limb that's cracked is above her head. It's about as long as she is. My girl's body is in a position that looks like an extended jumping jack in mid-air her arms in a V and her legs in an upside down V. She closed her legs, her arms still flailing around. Then the inevitable, a loud "THUD," as her feet hit the ground. She landed and then fell backward on her bottom and rolled over on her stomach.
I pulled Jack out of the tree with one hand, set him on the ground, and raced over to Madeline. She's groaning, low grunts, no tears. "STOP MOVING!" I exclaimed, and I tried to do the triage questions, but she won't have any of it. Mom comes running outside, she heard the drop on the ground and knew what happened.
Madeline has a huge bruise on her bottom, but other than that she's unharmed. No broken leg, arm, back . . . thank the Lord. That girl is 97% muscle and I'm guessing between that and the adrenaline she avoided breaking any bones. The bruise on her bottom was when she fell back and landed on one of the tree's roots.