I think it must have all started when the kids saw someone riding a motorcycle and remarked that the man on the motorcycle was wearing a “hat.”

“It’s a helmet,” I told them. “It keeps your head safe.”

From that point on, every time we saw someone riding a motorcycle, both kids were thrilled to announce that the person was wearing a helmet.  And that Gramps (my dad) wore a helmet on his motorcycle.  Keeps his head safe.  Then, they noticed people on bicycles were wearing helmets, too! Would you even believe it?! Oh, the excitement that can bring to two-year-olds!

At any rate, my mom decided to get the kids a pair of tricycles for their birthday (blessedly with attached parent-push-bar to save my back).  I assembled them yesterday morning and they were thrilled with their new toys. I decided to pull my car out to block the street end of our driveway and let the kids ride their bike on the pavement.

As I brought them over to ride their bikes in the driveway, Rebecca became rather distressed. “Need a helmet! Need a helmet!”  Daniel chimed in, “keep-a head safe.”

Damn. Guess they were listening.  You know, it’s not like I saw a motorcycle and thought to myself, “hey, there’s a teachable moment, I’d better capitalize on it!” No, I just kept talking and explaining just like I always do when they’re in the back seat of the van. Looks like they take it in, huh?

At any rate, it took a couple of different stores, but eventually we located toddler-sized bike helmets. Purple for Rebecca, Sesame Street with Elmo for Daniel (it was slim pickings, let me tell you).  They kept them on for the rest of the afternoon.