The lure of the puddle

Following a couple of booming thunderstorms and heavy downpours, The Hat Trick headed out on their bikes to play with Neighbor Boy. Within 15 minutes, Neighbor Boy came a-knockin'.

"Umm...Mrs. B? Ummm....ummm...Moe and Curly Sue wrecked on their bikes."

This is not uncommon, but usually it involves hurt feelings rather than hurt bodies. This time, though, it was definitely hurt bodies. By the time I got down the street, Neighbor Boy's mom was walking Moe's bike up the hill -- she lives closer to the wreck site than we -- and Moe was a horrifying sight with blood dripping down his legs and arm. Curly Sue was already in Neighbor Boy's driveway, seemingly okay except for a few scrapes.

Geddy carried Moe home and put him straight in the tub to try and dig out road trash from his wounds. Moe is tough, but he was insisting that he's never leaving the house again until he's old enough to drive, so we knew he was hurting.

Turns out Curly Sue's thumb got bent oddly underneath her as she went down, so off to the ER we went. It wasn't broken but it was badly bruised, so she went into a hard splint, wrap and sling. Moe's bleeding stopped so we didn't take him in, but he is bruised all over and scraped/cut on both knees and elbows, face, chin, arms, legs and torso. He is very sore today.

The last thing Geddy said to them as they went out to play was, "Hey, you already had your showers, so don't get too wet or muddy." And the first thing they did was head for a ginormous puddle at the bottom of a hill, at full speed. Moe apparently lost control when he hit the puddle, which was deeper than he thought, and slammed into Curly Sue.

We've always been insistent that the children wear their helmets when they ride and we were very glad they were wearing them yesterday!