You know it is a going to be a good day when the two children that usually drag their feet about getting ready for school are ready to go for school well before the necessary time. In fact, Lance was ready to go well before we needed to go. He was asking me repeatedly, “when are we going to leave?” If it was not that, it was a variation of that such as, “Can we leave yet?” That means that today is going to be a fabulous
Of course no first day of school morning would be complete without a little rough housing in the entry way of the house, on the hard tile, by the end of the stair railing…no children were hurt in this exercise I should add. There were injuries sustained, but you cannot tell that by any of the faces I saw this morning. The only injuries were to inanimate objects, in this case, the bicycle helmet that you see blurred in the picture.
In fact, the child that got smacked in the head with it did not get hurt…no! Not that child. That would be Kyle, by the way. He quickly blocked thus softening the blow and then retaliated like he has been trained to in karate. Yes! This means that the many dollars that have been spent on him over the many years he has been in karate have finally paid off. He really did earn that Black Belt. I was not concerned about that, sometimes I just wondered if he would ever use it if necessary.
First, let me preface the remainder of this story by saying that Kyle was the one that provoked the rough housing. He totally and completely started it all on his own. Lance was the innocent bystander as far as I could see and I was standing right there next to both of them. I was taking their traditional “mom has to have them” back to school pictures.
At any rate, Kyle provoked Lance. Kyle started it. Kyle tried to pick up Lance by the ears in a manner of speaking. That is what I heard (in his totally playing around voice), “Look mom I can pick up Lance by his ears.” As he bends over, puts his arms under his brother’s arms, grabs his brother’s ears, and then proceeds to pick up Lance by his ears. There was a little back and forth and swinging and trashing. There was general laughing and wrestling back and forth.
Lance of course would not be out done and he is no dummy. He figured out that while his brother might outsize him in more way than one, he had a perfect weapon in his hand. He was not letting go of this bicycle helmet that he had in his hand. As his brother is picking on him essentially, Lance takes matters in his own hands to help even the “size” out a little. He tries to whack his brother in the head with his helmet. He does a pretty good job of it considering his brother is taller than him and has a bit more skill than him. Lance’s height does have one advantage for him, Kyle has to bend over to wrap his arms around him and that puts him at a slight disadvantage. It leaves his head wide open in order for him to get in close enough to embrace him.
Needless to say Kyle did get whacked with the bicycle helmet albeit a bit softer than he would have been hit. He did manage to block the hit, just not as effectively as he would have if he had been standing more upright. Thus the retaliation. See Kyle is my “fighter.” He loves to spar and he turns into an animal in the sparring ring. So when Kyle got hit, those instincts kicked in. I saw it. He retaliated almost immediately because he knew that Lance was not going to stop at one hit, which he did not. Kyle went right for where he knew it would hurt.
I hear Lance yelling, “No you are not going to get my balls, you can’t have my balls!” He throws one arm down to block his crotch and the other arm goes swinging and I hear this crack as his bicycle helmet hits the stair railing – hard. He did not let go of either one, I should add. He knew better. Finally, the short time he has been in karate has caught up with him and it was not just all fun and games, he has learned something. He might be a future Black Belt candidate after all.
If I was not laughing so hard at what was unfolding in front of me and I was not so busy trying to capture the pictures for future black mailing efforts, I would probably be more upset about it. I was actually not too upset about the “crack” I heard. I probably should have been, but this was pretty darn funny to watch these two go at it. They were totally enjoying themselves and I was enjoying watching it.
The thing is, they both knew they were in trouble. They both saw the pieces of plastic shell break off and go flying from the helmet. Yes, they managed to crack the plastic shell on the helmet and crack pieces off of it. They together stood there and figured out where the pieces went. I did not look at it any closer than where I stood. I did not yell. I did not say anything. They knew. The thing is, I could not do anything about the helmet right that second anyway. In a few minutes we were going to have to get on that bike and ride to school. It was going to have to be good enough.
Yes, it means that in very short order I am now going to have to buy two bicycle helmets but maybe not. It could just be the outer shell they cracked and it may not be an emergency. Andrew did a bit more damage to his. The problem is that finding a helmet is not always easy. They can get very expensive to get a good fitting one. I just need to break down and replace his as he did manage to damage the foam underneath his plastic shell. Once Lance gets home from school today, I will worry about the helmet and will assess the damage from there. If they damaged the foam we will go and buy a new helmet.
If not, I will keep my eye out for a good sale on it. I was already kind of doing that as he needed one anyway. His helmet takes a lot of wear and tear because it is in the constant sun and heat. It goes in and out of his backpack daily during the school year. His shell was already cracked, but not damaged underneath. So he already was in need of a new one. That is probably part of the reason I was not more upset about the helmet. His helmet was already showing its wear.
The good news is that Kyle and Lance enjoyed their spare time this morning entertaining their tired mother. I got up extra early this morning to take Andrew to school. I was up at 5:00am and out the door by 6:05am. Fortunately at that time in the morning traffic was not too bad around the high school even with the crazy construction. It just means that I am going to be crazy tired tonight.
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