Every now and then I find myself getting into a rut with work. I feel like I've done the same activities to death and sometimes I worry about getting stale. Especially with one of the kids because she's been in my care for the better part of 5 years. I worry that she'll get bored or won't learn anything new because I've quite literally used up all my resources on her and am constantly trying to find something new and interesting to do with her. It became a little more difficult last month when one of the other kids left the daycare and now this little girl (I'll call her Ham....when she was a toddler and I'd point the camera at her and Mary Jo and say "say cheese" Mary would always shout "cheese" and the other little one would shout "Ham" I took to calling them Ham and Cheese) is all alone in the afternoon with me and two toddlers. So if I'm busy with one of the little ones, she's left to her defenses. Having said that, spending 5 of her 6 years here with me, she's certainly comfortable enough here to call this place a second home and can find a million and one things to do while I'm busy with the babies.

I'm getting off track here. So I thought since the nice weather was here that I'd have bike day. Something to spice up things for the older kids. I'd have the older kids all bring their bikes to daycare, we'd ride to and from school. It went over great, they were excited. Mary and Ham got on their bikes and away we went. (of course, Emily doesn't have a bike, doesn't want a bike and hates bike riding) Much to my relief, Ham still has her training wheels. So while I was a little worried that Mary still does and that she'd get picked on I thought that maybe there would be strength in numbers.
No such luck.
My baby wasn't even in the school yard and some little snot nose made fun of her for having training wheels which made my sensitive child burst into tears.
I'm not normally the 'get involved in school yard battles' kind of mom. My kids have learned how to settle disputes quite well but this just burned me. And it's a darn good thing I wasn't PMSing or I might have torn a strip off of whichever kid was picking on her.

In the end I let her come home at lunch with Ham and spend the day playing, being the 6 year olds that they are and not worrying about having training wheels.
Mary is determined to learn to ride on two wheels now. If she does, great. If not - we just remind her that Daddy didn't learn how to ride a bike until he was 12....so she's got lots of time!