Category — Biking

J has become a biking superstar. The other day the girls and I biked 1.8 miles each way to a playground, and that night J  requested more biking as part of her date with Daddy. M, meanwhile, has been wonderfully patient with the slow riding pace.

Today we decided to bike to Central Park, and the ride there was great. After playing together at the playground, the girls requested that we bike over to the Rose Garden for a snack.

The Rose Garden earlier this summer

Just as we were almost there, J fell and skinned her knee. There was blood, although not too much. But she was beside herself with the pain, pain, pain. She sobbed loudly while I held onto her and M, in her own world, inspected roses.

She happened to fall right next to the old-tennis-court-turned-dog-run-area, and it was dramatic enough that the one dog and his human lady came over to check us out. The lady was solicitous, and J loves dogs, so I seized the opportunity for a distraction and asked if she could approach the dog and say hi. “Oh, sure,” the lady says. Then she watches as J extends her fingers through the chain-link fence for the dog to sniff and as the two of them are making contact, the lady says, “Be good now! No biting! NO BITING!!!”  At this my clever child retracted her fingers while I clutched her just in case she weren’t so clever.

Speaking of not so clever, the woman continues, smiling, “You just never know what he’s going to do, he’s so bad, I brought him here to try to run off some energy. . . .” At which I smiled back and murmured, mostly to myself, “Oh, dear, that would have been good to know before we approached him. . . .” I was too startled to say more, especially because the lady was trying to be polite even as she subjected to my still-bleeding-and-tearful daughter to a possible dog attack. I just sent J (walking) over to the garden and dragged J’s bike over to park next to M’s, fuming all the way.

J overcame the fear and pain for the bike ride home, although she was moaning, “I want to be hooooooooommme” for the first several blocks. By the time we arrived at our house, she was once again jubilant and carefree. And so, of course, as she turned into the driveway, she wiped out again.

I carried her to our bench while good big sister/EMT  M rushed over with the first aid box and “cold kitty.” If you do not already own an adorable ice pack to keep in your freezer, I cannot possibly overstate the psychologically therapeutic value of this item. Seriously. There is nothing like a special ice pack to make a child feel like his or her injury is recognized as an Extremely Significant Occurrence.  In two out of three cases, merely touching the ice pack instantaneously cures most bumps and bruises.

J said she wasn’t going to bike again for a long time. Then she decided that she wasn’t going to bike again for the rest of the day. When I saw her on her bike an hour later, I didn’t say a thing.

J and I went on our first bike ride of the season yesterday.  We used our fabulous Trail-Gator.   Oh, Trail-Gator!  How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.

1. You bring all of the joy of “real” bike riding–the speed,  the wind in the hair, the ability to easily ride in figure eights–to my not-quite-bike-riding child.
2. You take away so much stress:  the child isn’t afraid of falling, the parent isn’t waiting for a very slow pedaler or worrying that the kid will veer unexpectedly into traffic.
3. You let kids be active participants in the biking so that they  feel more grown up and included in a way that they didn’t in the kid bike seat or the trailer.
4. You give kiddies the “feel” for bike riding so that they learn to ride on their own miraculously quickly and easily.
5. You keep my daughter far enough away from me that she can no longer reach to  tickle my belly flab like she did when she was in the bike seat.
6. You are unusual enough that when we tool around town, people stop and make delighted remarks as if we are a very modest yet charming parade.

Oh, you beautiful contraption, you!  I know that this is our last summer together.  You’ll work your magic, I know, and by the end of the summer, J will heap scorn upon you as something for little kids.  Please, don’t take it personally.  It’s not you:  it’s her.  I will always remember you and our beautiful summer evenings together.  You’ll always have a special place in my heart, but when we’re all ready to move on,  it will bring me joy to help find someone else who’ll love you. . . .

Okay, I’m getting silly, but I do love this thing.  We got on yesterday and I said, “Okay, J, do you remember how to do this?” and she answered, “Yes!  Always go forward, never go back.”  This made me laugh because we’d always remind her–it’s really not difficult to pull her along, unless she’s actively braking.  If she starts to brake on our way up hill, well–that sucks. But generally, she’s pedaling, too, so it’s not bad at all–sometimes I even coast because she’s pushing me along.  I’ve even seen a man biking around town with a child towed behind him and a trailer towed behind the child.  Now that takes some muscle.  Perhaps a teensy bit dangerous, yet also impressive.

So, if you’ve got a pre-bike-rider in your family, this is an excellent time to think about getting one of these.  I’m pretty sure that Target and various other places have similar items, too.

There will be more about biking in our future, I’m sure, but meanwhile, I did stumble upon one time-sensitive item:  If you know a spot that could use a bike rack, you can apply for a free or reduced-price bike rack from the Capital District Transportation Committee–complete an application by March 12.