We had a fun Independence Day; Harrison spent the night at Deedee's house, and we slept in as much as possible, then Deedee brought all the kids over at 10am and we decorated the pool and their bikes/scooters for the big neighborhood parade.
As children and families were gathering for the parade, I gave my annual safety speech, reminding the bike riding kids not to ride too fast, and to come back for the rest of us once in awhile so it was a parade and not a race. I reminded them to ride on the right hand side of the street, whichever direction they were heading.
And then the parade began, and all bets were off. In the past, we've had many more electric toy cars, scooters, strollers and wagons. But the kids are all growing up, and we had a record number of bikes this year, resulting in a record number of spills and wipe-outs. Wouldn't you know, the two most serious accidents involved Harrison and Alex.
Harrison was trying to do as Julio asked, which was to catch up to the bikers who'd ridden ahead and tell them to wait at the corner. Turns out that was not the best request to make of a kid on a scooter: he ended up going way too fast and took a tumble, taking a chunk of skin off his left knee. Luckily, one of the other moms was better prepared than I, and handed me a band-aid, which covered enough to get him to the house so we could properly clean and disinfect.
Meanwhile, Alex, undoubtedly keeping up with our more speedy bikers, veered to avoid a little tyke, and ended up slamming into one of the neighborhood girls, banging her up and somehow landing on his head, as well as skinning up his shoulder.
Next year, I'm going to add "any child riding a vehicle is strongly urged to wear the appropriate protective gear, including a HELMET" to the invitations.
As children and families were gathering for the parade, I gave my annual safety speech, reminding the bike riding kids not to ride too fast, and to come back for the rest of us once in awhile so it was a parade and not a race. I reminded them to ride on the right hand side of the street, whichever direction they were heading.
And then the parade began, and all bets were off. In the past, we've had many more electric toy cars, scooters, strollers and wagons. But the kids are all growing up, and we had a record number of bikes this year, resulting in a record number of spills and wipe-outs. Wouldn't you know, the two most serious accidents involved Harrison and Alex.
Harrison was trying to do as Julio asked, which was to catch up to the bikers who'd ridden ahead and tell them to wait at the corner. Turns out that was not the best request to make of a kid on a scooter: he ended up going way too fast and took a tumble, taking a chunk of skin off his left knee. Luckily, one of the other moms was better prepared than I, and handed me a band-aid, which covered enough to get him to the house so we could properly clean and disinfect.
Meanwhile, Alex, undoubtedly keeping up with our more speedy bikers, veered to avoid a little tyke, and ended up slamming into one of the neighborhood girls, banging her up and somehow landing on his head, as well as skinning up his shoulder.
Next year, I'm going to add "any child riding a vehicle is strongly urged to wear the appropriate protective gear, including a HELMET" to the invitations.
And I'm going to wrap Harrison in bubble wrap.
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