when lumpy was four and a half, he was spinning in the living room. i have no idea why. but as anyone who spins in circles would, he got dizzy. and then he fell over. and then his head started gushing blood and he needed three stitches just above his eye. he now has a lovely scar with which to woo the ladies.
when lumpy was five, he decided to play a "star wars" game in his bedroom with his brother. this game involved bumble sitting on the top bunk and holding a blanket while lumpy used it to climb up the outside of the bed. i was sitting in the living room watching a movie at the time. all of a sudden there was a thump and screaming. sadly, bumps and thumps and screaming and yelling are normal parts of playing with my boys, and i didn't think much of it. then the screaming sounded just a little bit different, and i could hear it getting louder as lump came down the hall towards me. he held his arm out and told me it hurt. normally i would have told him to just shake it off, but i could see the bone under the skin sticking out at a very strange angle. at the hospital, after x-ray, it showed that he broke one of the bones in his forearm so completely that it dislocated from his elbow while cracking the other one. he was in a full arm cast for six weeks and a short cast for three more weeks after that. fishie was only four weeks at the time, so you can imagine my stress level at the time.
two years ago, my hubby decided to get the boys quads. like little atv's, boy sized, for them to go running around on, because my father-in-law and a bunch of our friends all have them, and they all used to let the boys ride on the back of their quads. and then my nieces, who are older than our boys, got quads. so my hubby got our boys quads also. i made sure that he also got them helmets and chest pads and shin guards and gloves and arm protectors and neck rolls, basically a full suit so that if and when the boys fell off they would be somewhat protected. still, lumpy would go and drive and forget where the break was and drive into things. or fall off when it was going super fast. or jump over dirt mounds and try to do tricks. eventually i had to stop going out with everybody to watch them ride, because with every little jump and bump, my heart would stop. i knew there were responsible adults who were watching and in charge of everything. still, they are my boys, and lumpy will always be my littlest baby boy.
this past summer, we gave lumpy a 20 inch bike to ride. now, he's a big kid, much taller than average, but still, this bike was a little bit big for him. still, he had been riding his brother's bike the summer before, and that had been a 20 inch bike, so i knew he should be able to do it. he was afraid that he'd fall, and for a while he didn't even want to try, so as a bribe, i told him if he could ride a big boy like like that, i would see about getting him a dirk bike. not just a mountain bike, but the kind with a motor, the kind that can drive around over jumps and do tricks with. i don't know why i said it at the time, maybe part of me thought that he'd never really be able to ride that big bike. or maybe i thought he'd forget. and he had for awhile. then somebody, and i won't name names, reminded him at the end of the summer the promise i had made. now i'm just hoping that this summer everybody forgets about it.
now, this is not to say that there haven't been moments where bumble has stopped my heart. it's just that lumpy is more adventurous. he is a little dare devil. and as he gets older, i know it will just get worse. i want him to have his freedom to explore the world, to do his own thing and make something of life. still, there are times where i just wish he'd be more interested in reading history books instead trying to get his name in them.
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