One of the boys came bounding up to our house dropping his bike on our lawn and bursting through the front door instead of knocking. "Hurry Quick, Justin's been hurt!" Mom flew out the door and either sprinted the 5 blocks to where my brother was, or drove, and quite honestly I have no real memory of how she got there. There was blood EVERYWHERE and my brother was on the ground clutching his mouth.
The boys had gotten off their bikes to walk them across the street at a fairly busy corner. My brother, apparently exhausted from all the bike riding that had already been done that day and anticipating how much they had left, rested his chin on the handlebars of his bike. When his bike went down off the curb, it bounced back up to smack Justin's chin, forcing his mouth closed and his teeth through his tongue. Why in the world was his tongue hanging out? Who knows why 9 year olds do anything anyway?!?!
In hustle of the emergency panic, mom kept cool long enough to get Justin back to the house and get his mouth rinsed out, so that she could see the wound. The blood was gushing and Justin was crying, and mom had to figure out what to do. She didn't want to take him to the Emergency Department at the local hospital because that would be hundreds of dollars and several hours, neither of which she had at that point. She called her boss, the dentist. He met them at his office, and stitched my brother's punctured tongue back together. Justin ate a liquid diet while it healed, and we all had a great laugh later about what a crappy Mother's Day present that was for Mom
My Mother's Day today was not nearly as eventful, and I'm soo happy.
I got an amazing veggie omelette, fruit cup, and coffee for breakfast.
Andy went to play golf with his mother and brothers, so I took the girls to a playground in the morning. We came home for nap time (for both me and Mayzie), and then I took them to our favorite frozen yogurt place.
Tempting Mother's Day fate, I then took the girls to the Greenway paved bike path so they could burn off some energy.
They enjoyed riding bikes AND running on the walls of part of the greenway.
They rode their bikes while I walked from one of the parking areas to this skate park that they always like. Mayzie was having a blast exploring the ramps and trying her hand at some tricks. (I am totally serious!) She kept asking me to help her go up higher, and it was cracking me up. Annika, having crashed a couple of times, turned to running and then climbing the ramps, and mostly just getting in the way of the skateboarders who were doing real tricks.
We took a break and the girls picked me some flowers in a field.
When we got back to the spot where our car was parked, Annika enjoyed climbing the sculptures there.
There was whining. There were almost accidents. Girls fell off bikes. There was forced public urination that may have ended up on one of my hands. There was bickering. I may have thought that I had lost Annika at least twice.
But all in all, it was a lovely Mother's Day with my girls. I remembered snacks. I pampered my girls by doing exactly what they wanted to do. It was brilliant to let them have the lead for a day. We had so much fun and I didn't let the stress get to me. I kept my cool, and stayed patient all day. It was a freaking miracle!
I hope that all the lovely mother's I know had a day that was filled with as much love as mine was.
