Training Wheels

We bought my 4 yr old a 'big boy bike' with training wheels for his birthday. Excited to master it, he insisted on riding it everyday after school and work. Near the bike bath are these large 6'x6' concrete drainage systems, there is one about every 50 yards. They are about 1' above the ground and a nice large target for someone who can't keep the bike on the paved path.

This particular day it was just he and I. He was keeping the bike on the path so I backed off so as to not hover too closely. As luck would have it, he headed down a gentle embankment and straight for one of these massive drainage systems. I could see his front tire stopping dead in its track as he and the rest of the bike catapulted onto this obvious danger.

I quickened my pace to a sprint to save him from an inevitable crash. I reached out in time to grab the base of the hood on his sweatshirt and pulled him off of his bike. In my mind it is how Superman would have grabbed a 'bad buy' from behind and had their feet dangling above the ground. He coughs and says, "Thanks for saving me Mommy! I almost crashed into that thing!"

When we got home my husband noticed a rug-burn like mark on our son's throat. He inquired, "What happened to your neck?" I was anxious to hear how he'd retell how I had saved him...Our son excitedly replied, "Mommy chocked me." Of course he left off the part that the injury caused by the sweatshirt was far less than what he would have experienced had I not lifted him off of his bike by his hood. I was waiting for school to call the following day....

Who's being Cheap?

It was someone's birthday at work today. Emails were flying around about a card and collecting money for pizza. Her boss walks into my office and says, "Are you contributing to the card?" Instantly I'm thinking: For the card? Aren't they less than $2? YOU are the boss, aren't you making enough money to cover the cost of a greeting card for your own employee? I want her to hear what she's asking, so I reply very plainly, "How much was the card?" to which she replies very matter of factly, "99 cents." I reach in my drawer and hand her a quarter. She throws me a bewildered look and says, "Are you serious?" I raise the ante and say, "I'll give you a dollar to pay for the card if that's what you are after. What are the others giving?" She laughs and says, "I don't want your quarter for the card! I am collecting money for her gift, the others are giving $5 and you just gave me a quarter."

Here I thought she was being cheap by asking for pennies to pay for a card- when it was me who tried to give 25 cents to a birthday gift!