Bleed and Cut Knees

What is it with little boys and beat-up knees? Summertime brings so many familiar moments, some good and some not so good....mosquitos and lemonade, daylight until 9pm (guilt when you're in bed before its dark), and the plethora of band-aids that I must stock to keep up with the knees that I must tend. Its constant, it seems. As soon as the weather gets warm and then very warm, my boys start tumbling. Typically they land on concrete, but I've bandaged up knees that have flecks of grass stuck to them. Perhaps the summer brings out a different kind of purpose in running itself. Running with more speed, more abandon, pure joy....and then they crash. Their reactions are so different. I have one who hardly slows down, wipes blood away and continues on and one that is so fascinated by "bleed" that he rates his falls by how many band-aids it requires. A well-earned war wound, complete with a story that shares where he was heading and how fast he was going and then BOOM (the boom is always re-enacted).
We were getting ready to go to the store, putting shoes on and I realized as I was bent down, then sitting down, how funny their little legs looked from this new perspective. Navy shorts on both that stopped right above the knees, between the two of them I counted 8 band-aids. There could have been more, there were scrapes and bruises unaccounted for...I looked in horror at their little calves and said, "oh guys, you have a lot of cuts and bruises and band-aids." They gave me big smiles back and Jack said, "I know Mom...isn't it great!"