Off Her Rocker

She had to figure it out the hard way, and I didn't interfere, even though I was sitting right next to her when it happened. Angie has a rocking horse. She's tall enough now to climb on it herself, and climb she does. Sometimes she'll stand on it's back, sometimes she'll flip it over and sit on it's side. But most often, she'll sit astraddle, shoulders hunched as she violently rocks forward and back, scooting the horse around on the carpet with every motion. And over time, she's begun rocking it so hard that it nearly stands on the ends of it's rockers. Three days ago, she finally went too far. As I watched, I could see it coming. It was a tossup whether she'd go over the front end or the back...one more rock and it would have been the back, but as it was, the horse stood on the front tips of its rockers before slowly passing the zenith. After a very ungraceful (and probably scary) belly flop onto the carpet, which required a mere ten-seconds consolation snuggling, she righted the horse as if she was going to climb back on. She didn't, however, and avoided the thing for the rest of the day. Happily, the lesson stuck, though, and she hasn't been rocking nearly as hard since then.