The helmet DOES serve a purpose!

So Madison gets decked out in her knee pads and helmet for every bike ride. Sometimes I wonder if it's overkill when I think about how I grew up. Did I even know what a helmet was? I certainly never had one. And forget about knee pads. I definitely didn't have those! But I hate to see my babies hurt, even if it's just a scraped knee. Better safe than sorry. But today confirmed for me the very reasons why I make her wear all the protective gear. Madison was riding ahead of me while I was running (2 miles again, whoo hoo!) and during the ONE split second she was out of my sight due to a huge bush in front of a mailbox, all I heard was the crash of her bike falling coupled with plastic/styrofoam hitting the pavement. The plastic/styrofoam sound was, of course, her helmet making contact with the concrete. Thank GOD I make her wear that thing! The girl didn't have a scratch on her, but was very shaken by the fall. It was, by the way, her very first fall off of her big girl bike without training wheels. Is that a milestone, or what?