Curtains

When Emma was 20 months old, I was about to graduate from BYU and they had a Grad Night, to celebrate the graduating class.  Mandy and I decided to go and enjoyed a nice evening of games and food and we brought Emma along.  In the Wilkinson Center, the hallways were blocked off to limit access to only graduating students.  These movable walls were simply a metal frame with curtains hung over them.  Emma was about 4 inches shorter than the crossbar in the frame and she had a blast leaning forward, running through the curtain and letting it slide up her body and face until she burst out the other side.  We watched her do this for about 15 minutes, loving her joy and excitement each time.  Finally we decided it was time to go, so we made our way to the exit.  If you are not familiar with the Wilkinson Center at BYU, in the center of it is a large atrium with glass walls.  Emma was running about 20 feet ahead of us as we rounded the corner heading to the outside doors, the atrium off to the side... with the curtains drawn around the glass walls.  Emma quickly shifted directions, her objective clear in her new trajectory as she made a b-line for the curtains.  At a dead run, she ran face first into the curtain and about an inch later, into a solid glass panel.  She bounced off, a red mark already forming on her forehead.  Like any good parents would, we burst out laughing at the innocent mistake of our fun seeking daughter, but she wasn't done making us laugh.  With a slightly stunned look on her face, she reached up to rub her face and then burst into her high-pitched little laugh.  For the next couple minutes she laughed her head off and we laughed along with her.  She still loves to run through curtains, but on her first pass, she approaches with more caution than she did that night.