Nathan asked me if I would take him to this place at Greenlake where you ride your bike over dirt jumps etc. I took him this afternoon, along with a book and a comfortable chair to sit in. There were some big hill/dirt jumps and a fair number of kids and adults riding really fast and flying off the jumps. Internally I thought, egads,yikes, I guess he’s ok with this, I’ll read my book and sort of watch out of the corner of my eye (it made me think of my mom who told me later in life that when I was doing springboard diving, she actually closed her eyes when I left the board and then opened them again when the cheering started – I now understand why!) Anyway, Nate cruises down the road, up over the first hill, catches some air over the second hill and, CRASH. Yep, I hesitated to jump up and yell like a crazy hysterical mother and calmly waited, and waited, and then realized that he was crying and would like me to come and help him. I walked over, helped him to his feet, picked up his bike, checked him over (yes there was blood) and helped him over to my chair where he caught his breath, sat on my lap, drank some water and decided that maybe he was going too fast and that it was time to go home. We watched a few more people and a younger boy came over and said, “good job.” Next time we go we talked about how he would ride a little slower and try the lower section first (wise thinking). Maybe I’ll join him next time, we’ll see.