Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Bike Rides

So, we have a couple of pre-Henry blogs we were planning to post, but now that Henry is here we don't want to confuse everyone and make them wonder why we don't talk about our new baby. Therefore, we'll post a couple of these quickly and get to life with Henry posts. Below is the first of the last posts of the days with Cole solo. (And if you don't know who Henry is check out the older post).

If you recall, the Easter Bunny gave Cole a bike seat attachment so he could come on bike rides with me. It wasn’t easy, but we were finally able to go for a ride. The first challenge was getting him to sit in the seat. At first he thought it was pretty horrible and our planned first bike ride didn’t even happen. The second challenge faced was getting him to wear his bike helmet. Kristin was able to get it on him and buckle it under his chin. Cole instantly cried and tried to pull it off with the strap pulling his chin up. Finally, attempt number three worked. For some reason Cole was fine with sitting on the seat and wearing his helmet. I have no idea why he had the change of attitude, but I’ll take it. $65 not wasted! Cole seemed to like the ride. I couldn't see his face, but I didn’t hear any screaming or crying so I imagine he was all smiles.   

On our next bike ride things went great at first. I got the bike, seat and his helmet out from the shed. He seemed very interested and excited to go for a ride. He even tried to put on his helmet himself. Once ready, I strapped him in his seat and we set off. We went for a ride along the Oak Leaf Trail from Riverside Park all the way to about O'Donnell Park. This is where I made a grave mistake. I wanted to turn around and start heading back, so I stopped the bike. I figured I would check on him and try to decipher his expression to see if he was having fun. He looked pretty happy, but then he got his helmet off and REFUSED to put it back on. I tried to force it on and he would wail and go berserk. I began to walk the bike with him in it to try to calm him down. It worked, but then I went through the same ordeal when I tried to get his helmet back on. At some point I managed to get his helmet strapped on and I quickly took off, holding him and his helmet on with one hand and steering the bike with the other. He continued to cry and wail. Needless to say we got some looks when we passed people on the crowded trail. I thought his crying would stop, but it didn't and eventually I gave up. I took his helmet off and started to walk the bike again. Sadly, I was a good 2 + miles from home, so I had to call Kristin to meet us at Alterra on the Lake. To make things worse, I actually bumped into somebody I know on the trail while walking my bike with my sad little child in it. I know about four people in the area, including Kristin, so this was bullshit. Oh well. We made it to Alterra and Cole got a car ride home. As an added bonus, he cried going into his carseat. I think he wanted to go back on the bike (as long as he didn't have to wear his helmet).




1 comment:

  1. We have the Wee Ride, and Matilda HATED wearing her helmet at first. But she loved the Wee Ride, so eventually she made her peace with the helmet. I definitely remember some traumatic public events where it appeared that I was torturing my child. Just chalk it up to the many fun things that we will plan that they will resent.

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