Tom and I are the dumbest parents on the planet

We meander through life thinking that we will finally get this parenting thing figured out one of these days... yes, we are seriously deluded. So, Cassie gets it in her head that she wants to go ride her bike after dinner. Okay, no problem - except Jamie has REFUSED to get back on his bike since he fell off in October and a car "almost hit him" (it was literally about 30 car lengths away, so much for "near death experiences")... so, we get Cassie on her trike and she's doing okay... she gets going too fast and her feet fly off... typical Cassie.

Jamie is sitting on his bike whining that he doesn't know how and it's too hard and we are fussing at him that he's being ridiculous and to push the pedals and stop it right now... yeah. So, he finally manages to go a little ways, I'm walking beside him wondering why in the heck we got training wheels if I'm just going to push him around... I finally realize that it looks like he IS trying, but not going anywhere, so I tell Tom to get on his bike (I wish I had had my camera at that time)... Tom says the pedals are REALLY hard to push. We don't know why. Anyone know anything about bikes? He rode a bike a friend gave to Cassie and he did just fine. We felt like morons. Again.

Evil child tried to run me over
(of course, if I had people fussing at me for no good reason...)
((or maybe because it's a "girl bike" which means it has cooties I guess))

Yes, safety-concious people, we know her helmet kept falling half way off... not only are we morons, but we apparently can't figure out the stupid princess bike helmet either... and who designs elbow-pads? They keep falling off her... sigh, I see a trip to Target in my future.

... and while I'm rambling, I'm constantly amazed at the differences in my children. If I didn't know better, I would wonder if they are truly related. Jamie is careful, calculating and you really have to PUSH him to try something new, literally sometimes. Once he realizes (and this sometimes takes 3 or 4 pushes) that sudden death is not going to occur, it's all good. He drives me crazy sometimes with it. He's very rules-oriented and will tell you the rules -- repeatedly. Cassie... she doesn't have a care in the world. There are no rules in her world, she thinks nothing of jumping off of anything. She dances to the beat of her own little drummer... we are just along for the ride. She drives me crazy because I swear she's going to hurt herself. The fact that we have not yet ended up in the ER with a broken bone constantly amazes me. She simply must be made of steel.