Benjamin's Metamorphosis

Since he was a baby, Benjamin has always been our "safety kid." I blame myself, really. As my first baby, I was always hovering behind him, waiting to catch him whenever he fell down. I can't complain too much, however, since his cautiousness has always made my job easier. I never had to worry about him trying out dangerous playground equipment or climbing on things. Learning to ride a bike without training wheels was a long ordeal, due to a couple of minor tumbles. After a couple of weeks of white-knuckled, half-hearted trys, Benjamin announced to me, "I've decided that I don't want to ride a bike anymore. You just need to buy me a scooter." Being out of ideas, I resorted to bribery and told him that once he could ride his bike without training wheels we'd get him a scooter. After a few more weeks, it finally clicked. Since then he's been showing me all of his bike "tricks", such as standing up on the pedals, holding on with only one hand, etc. So you can imagine my surprise when he called me out to see his new trick and I saw him doing this:


Fortunately I was able to restrain the "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?? GET DOWN FROM THERE BEFORE YOU BREAK YOUR SKULL!" that immediately surged to my lips.

You just don't expect Barney to turn into Evil Knievel.