Bikes

So, I recently spent all of our money on a pair of bikes. An Electra Townie for me and a trail-a-bike for the bun, which attaches to the seat post of my bike, and makes a sort of tandem. She contributes to the pedaling and has to balance, but I steer for the two of us so we can ride in not-baby-friendly areas, such as the street. We ride all over the place.  (the pic is Grosse Park)

We have always been big walkers. She was a sling baby, and with zero child care assistance she of course went everywhere I went, which basically meant the grocery store, the liquor store, the library, and loads of parks. Albany Park is great for parks. We never did the stroller thing (I'm a paleo-heathen, so I think they're decadent or something.) so as soon as she could walk we started taking long hikes through the parks. 

(If you don't use a stroller all the time, you can assume a kid can walk their age in years, without difficulty. At 3 years old, we were routinely walking 4-5 miles in a go; longer than that I'd pop her back into the sling for a bit. Don't tire the kid out by walking too fast. Hand-holding can be tiring too, so I'd switch hands, let her hold onto a long end of the sling hanging lower than my hand, and walk on her won when she felt like it, in safe areas.)

As soon as she showed an interest in looking at things on the internet we stared looking at maps of where we had been. Google is great for this, we can toggle between the map and the satellite views and street views. Our new project with the maps and bikes is visiting every park on the North Side. That's about a hundred parks. There are 38 in our zip code alone. Chicago is awesome. 

The bikes make this project a lot more do-able. We had been going to the farther away parks by bus, but biking is way better. We frequently have to bike right in the street, like "real cyclists" which can be scary, as there are a lot of idiot drivers on the roads. So far so good though. Seeing biking babies is probably good for cyclist visibility (even though we aren't quite "real cyclists") and as long as we don't get hurt I know it's good for the Bun. I've been really delighted to see how many people smile and wave and seem to get a kick out of seeing a little kid biking around. The Bun loves it when people smile at her from cars, and wave as she rides by. 

Somebody needs to tell the kids' music people that YES indeed, you ARE supposed to ride in the street: if you're a big kid, a kid on a bike with a grown up, or there is no sidewalk. It's actually illegal for people over 12 to bike on the sidewalk in the city. Drivers need to get a grip and understand that too, put that in the kids' music: 

"If your Mom talks on the phone while driving your SUV, 

it's OK to call her a stupid bitch. 

If your Dad honks his horn while people are crossing the street, 

flush his keys down the toilet." 

Catchy, eh?

If only Critical Mass didn't always happen on the same Friday as the Heathen Book club.