A first and hopefully LAST!

A couple of my favorite things about our neighborhood are that my kids can ride their bikes in the street and that they have lots kids their age to play with. I love sitting outside and watching "the gang", all on their bikes, standing around talking. They look pretty intense and I am always super curious as to what they could have to talk about with such serious looks on their faces. (Especially since between the 7 of them they have, maybe, 30 years of life experience!) I am such a nosy mom and I'm afraid I need to reign that way in prior to the kids starting high school. My mom was so nosy *don't deny it mom* and it drove me crazy as a teenager. I don't want to be, but I am just a curious person. And only curious about other people's business.
I digress...Most of the kids in "the gang" are good kids, but there is this one little boy that is...different. And when the boys are playing with this "different" child I have to be more vigilant about what they are doing and how they are talking to each other. Tonight was NO exception.
The "different" child was riding his bike over a water bottle that he drank from and then threw on the ground (I'm now adding "litter bug" to his "different" status). My kids started riding their bikes over the water bottle too. It was going well for a while. Until Caleb's front tire caught the water bottle in an odd position and stopped the bike suddenly, throwing Caleb over the front of his handle bars. He did a somersault in the air and landed on his right arm. When my kids get hurt I usually wait to see what their reaction is before I speak, but a gasp slipped out of my mouth this time. Caleb looked up at me, with big eyes, when he landed and at first started to say how cool that was. I think it was at this point that the pain settled in, his smile turned upside down and his face crumbled into a cry.
In typical, dramatic, Caleb fashion he asks, "Am I bleeding everywhere?"
To which I respond, "No Caleb. There isn't blood anywhere."
"Well, this is why I have to wear a bike helmet," was his crying response.

I am a pretty laid back mom. Especially compared to "the Hovercraft" - the loving nickname we have given my hovering mom. I don't want my kids to get hurt, but I do want them to be boys and learn from their mistakes. With that said, I am a stickler for the bike helmet. I'd make my boys wear one everyday and everywhere they went if it weren't for fear of them being labled the "special child". I have no idea why people have to label kids!!! ;)