Biker Birdie

Birdie napped hard Friday afternoon, and by the time she woke up, she seemed to have turned a corner. So when her helmet arrived during the bambini's nap on Saturday, we thought she'd be up for her first spin in the bike trailer.

Here, we must pause to report that Our Hero now thinks of a bike ride as riding his red tricycle ("It's a bike," Our Hero informs us.) around the neighborhood. Thus, he was utterly dismayed to learn that "bike ride" could also refer to his riding in the trailer hitched to Ted's bike. Our Hero really can scoot about the neighborhood now on his (three) wheels, especially since Julie hit them with a little WD-40. Joe can make our usual neighborhood circuit in about 10 minutes, has gotten the knack of cornering, and has almost gotten the knack of building up some momentum to take the small hill from street to sidewalk without taking his feet from the pedals.

We were only able to leave on the family bike ride by promising that Joe could go on a bike ride on his bike when we got home. Julie hadn't been on her bike in about four years, save a ride or two the summer Joe turned one before she was pregnant with Clara (i.e. two years ago). She remarked that she would have to remember how to ride a bike. Joe said, "You put your feet on the pedals." Indeed. And so we were off!

All was going well until the bouncing along of the trailer bounced Birdie's helmet down into her eyes. Boo. She wailed (loudly) about the last quarter mile home. But she is not bike-averse from it all as this morning, she was trying valiantly to get herself on to Joe's tricycle, er, bike.