DON'T PANIC

When Short Person was a little baby, and something was about to go terribly wrong- or already had, I would pick her up and carry her to wherever (usually her changing table) to correct the situation. All the while repeating, "Don't Panic, Don't Panic, Don't Panic". Whether that was for her sake or mine is debatable, but what isn't debatable is that, like it usually does with her, it came back to haunt me.

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LJS was sitting in the living room watching a sports show of some sort, Short Person was in the office watching one of her shows, when he heard her little footsteps pound on the floor.

*thump, thump, thump, thump, thump*

"Daddy, don't worry. Everything's fine." She puts her little hands up at him. "Just stay on the couch."

"Uh... okay."

*thump, thump, thump, thump, thump*

A minute later.

*thump, thump, thump, thump, thump*

One hand up at Dad this time. "Everything's fine, Dad, just stay here. There's no problem."

Apparently, by this time LJS is thinking to himself "Oh Great", but responds with, "Umm... o...kay"

*thump, thump, thump, thump, thump"

A minute later, she comes walking back into the living room, one of our large glasses in hand. "Look Dad! The tape did a trick!"

LJS looked at the heavy glass to see that indeed the tape had jumped away from the dispenser and magically wrapped around the glass two or three times.

"Wow... great."

"Umm... Daddy? Can you help me fix it?"

If I had to guess, based on what I know about my daughter, she was playing with the tape, put it on the glass, and then started to worry when she couldn't get it off-- finally conceding that she was going to need help to do it.

Fast-forward a day or two. Short Person wanted a drink of my soda, but I was reluctant to let her have even a sip anywhere near the new couch or carpet.

"Okay, you can have a drink, but you need to carry it with both hands into the kitchen first. Very carefully, Mommy doesn't want it to spill."

"Okay, Mom, I will!"

10 seconds later she's back at the gate.

"Mom, don't worry, Daddy is already cleaning it up!"

"Cleaning what up?"

"It's okay Mom, Daddy is already cleaning up the mess."

*thump, thump, thump...*

"Hey! Come back here!"

*thump, thump, thump*

"What mess?"

"Daddy's already got a towel, Mom. It's O-Kay."

*thump, thump, thump*

I finally conceded that I needed to get up and go see how bad it really was.

Lately, if something happens, she's either been saying, "Don't worry. Accident's happen." or "Don't worry. I'm on it!" But it is always in that same tone of voice I used when I'd tell her not to panic.