Ella's First Bicycle Ride

Anyone who knows me knows I just like to be outside and active.  Two of my favorite activities since becoming a mom have been running with a kid in the BOB and riding my bike with a kid in a seat on the back.

At three and a half, Cal’s pretty much outgrown the BOB; so my running this year has been exclusively spent with Ella. The first time I ran with her, I felt like I was cheating on Cal. Afterall, he had been my running partner for more than a couple of years by then.  Sensitive to the “unfairness” of my always choosing to run with Ella, I will tell Cal that he can go for a bicycle ride either with me or with Daddy instead.  This works.  Cal is happy.  And I think that’s fair.

But then I started thinking, what about Ella?  At 17 months, Cal had already ridden on a bike.  She’s being cheated out of that.

So last week on my “off” day (from planned exercise), I decided I’d take both of the kids for a bike ride. Ella took an early nap, so I took Cal out for a ride on the path first.  6+ miles of good riding fun, which started with this picture (yes, Monkey came along for the ride, too):

A bike ride with Cal is filled with conversations and observations.  Riding on the prairie path near our home, we talk about bridges (there are four) and caterpillars and crickets (“where?”) and birds and alligators (naturally!) and creeks (“what’s a creek, Mommy?”) and donuts (we’ve ridden to get some) and Gatorade and airplanes (“Denver, Colorado” types, among others) and… you get the gist.

Then it was water-bottle-toting Ella’s turn: another 6+ miles of good riding fun much different than it was with Cal.  Whereas complete sentences are used when riding with Cal, I found that a ride with Ella is a little chatty but with single “words” like “Weeeee!” and “Ooohhhh!” and “Yaaaaayy!” repeated throughout the ride.

And that water bottle? Ella didn't drop it (or share it with Mommy) once.