"Fell"

Fell is like a four-letter word around here. Ok so, yes, technically it is a four letter word, but you know what I mean. Penny does not like it when somebody or something falls down. Some time ago I rented March of the Penguins thinking she'd enjoy seeing the penguins. About five minutes in, one fell down and that was the end of that. When my friend Kelly came over last week and brought her daughter Kate (age 21 months), Kate tripped on Penny's tractor and fell down in the living room. Kate jumped up completely unscathed and batted nary an eyelash. Penny was almost inconsolable. She apparently witnessed her cousin Owen fall down on the carport in Georgia because every time we are up there and walk past that spot, she'll say, "Owen fell down. [pause] "But he's okay." (because I've said that enough). And if she ever falls in the yard, for a good couple days afterwards she'll walk past that spot and point to it and say, "I fall down right there."

Yesterday she and I walked outside to discover that an oak limb had fallen on some elephant ears we have planted near the house. I said something stupid like, "Oh look, an oak limb fell out of the tree." I think Penny expressed her concern for that tree limb probably twenty or thirty times over the course of the morning. "That tree limb fall down?" [pause] "It's okay?"

*sigh* Yes, Penny, the tree limb is okay.