Last night the Bishop called to see if my husband could attend the temple with the youth of our ward. While I am grateful that we have already set a standard for ourselves as being willing and able to serve, I would have also enjoyed him being home.
But, I forged onward, and took the girls outside, and then found myself agreeing to take them on a bicycle ride. But not to the park I clarified, only down and back up our road. This was largely because it was late, and bedtime was approaching, and also because I was tired.
We emerged out of our backyard, Kiddo on her bike and ready to go. I asked Babs if she wanted to ride in her stroller, to which she answered, "Yeah...No." and started running after Kiddo. So I followed, without the stroller. When I got to the sidewalk, Babs saw I did not have the stroller, and started wailing, walking back to the corner where we keep it, and it was clear I had misread her answer. But I couldn't just go get the stroller, because Kiddo was already making serious time down the sidewalk, and wouldn't stop, even though I was screaming her name. (It is still unclear to me whether she couldn't or wouldn't hear.)
So there I was, standing between two kids, both of them moving away from me in different directions. And I just didn't know who it made more sense to follow. Do I chase the four year old, and leave the two year old to hopefully stay off the street? or do I help the two year old and hope the four year old eventually stops? Five seconds of paralyzing indecision later I ran back to Babs, set up the stroller, threw her in and started off to see if I could catch up to Kiddo.
Kiddo was at least five houses down the street, and had started coming back, once she realized I wasn't coming. But when she saw me, instead of waiting, she hopped back on her bike, and started going again. Didn't she realize that was majorly against the rules? That she needed to be closer to me, so I could help?
I pushed Babs as fast as I could safely, watching Kiddo continue flying down the road, getting further and further away. Our road is small and protected, but it intersects into a very busy road. And I couldn't figure out whether she was going to (or even could) stop. So I kept running, at this point also terrified, and, with tears streaming down my face, crying out loud "Heavenly Father, please stop her! Please, stop her!" All I could really see was her little pink self, moving very quickly toward a road filled with many cars moving even quicker. Then there was only one house left, but there were people in front of it, would they stop her?
Then quite abruptly, her bike crashed. And she stood up, looking back at me. She smiled, and ran toward me. I told her, without yelling, but really close to it, to stand next to her sister, and DON'T MOVE while I fetched her bike. She had fallen off because the sidewalk ended one house from the major street, and the drop from the sidewalk to the grass was about six inches.
I should have been grateful she wasn't hurt by the fall. Instead I focused on my gratitude that she had no chance to fly into the busy street...
On the way home, she sped ahead of me once more. Her bike rides will have to be with Daddy for a while.
