My husband and I have been working on making some healthy lifestyle changes. Nothing crazy, we're not going to start running over bridges or anything. We're really just making half-assed attempts to make ourselves feel better about ourselves. Like only eating out twice a week instead of 8 times a week. We have been trying to take a walk daily.
Tuesday evening was warm and breezy and after dinner we headed out for a walk and the kids wanted to ride their bike and scooter. My oldest daughter rides her bike down the drive way and asks, "Can I get a banana seat bike?" I was like, "No, you just got that bike 10 months ago. We paid $200 bucks for it. It's brand new." She rolled her eyes, "Well this bike gives me a wedgie and a banana bike wouldn't do that." My husband said, "Bike seats give wedgies. It's just one of those things." She protested. "Not uh, I rode my friend's bike before and it was a banana seat and it didn't give me a wedgie." I sighed, "Well, I'll buy you a seat cushion." She was getting angry, "You guys never get me anything!!" Way to speak in generalizations. I hate when my kids are ungrateful. They don't know how good they have it. "You know what? Some kids don't have a bike. There are starving kids in China. Be grateful for everything you have." I felt bad when I said it. Mostly for the starving kids in China. I don't give money to the starving kids in China yet I mention them casually. I'm horrible. Starving kids in third world countries: helping American parents guilt their children since 1953. She rode off and didn't talk to us for 15 minutes. Shes a diva.
As we were walking we came across a baby turtle crossing the road. He was headed for the yard of a guy who was mowing his grass. Not the smartest turtle. My kids asked if we could keep it. I was reminded of the turtle I found as a child that I kept as a pet and how I woke up one day and she was dead and her eyes had fallen out. I was traumatized. We've had enough pet death in our house this week so I told them no. We picked up the baby turtle and decided to take him to the pond. As we walked we made up a name for the turtle. We called him Tee-Tee. The girls took him to the edge of the pond and said goodbye. A pair of geese were a few feet away, sizing us up. My 8 year old began to get really upset. "Mom, the geese are going to try to bite us. We have to go now." This kid is afraid of everything.
We walked home. My 6 year old wiped out on her scooter 3 times. Really. She fell and scraped her knee, the palm of her hand...she was like, "I'm good." She fell again and got her elbow and hand again. Got right back up. By the third time I insisted on carrying her scooter and made her walk. She was just dripping blood, pulling the flap of skin hanging off on her hand. "Mom, I have lots of boo boos." She wasn't bothered. She is a warrior. We spent the next 1/2 hour cleaning the road out of her knees, elbow and hand and applying generous amounts of Neosporin and bandages. I was ready for bed after that. It's hard to semi-exercise, save turtles, and do first aid. It was way too much excitement for me crammed into 2 hours. I really need to slow down.
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