It's a night shift at the VA and I'm wired and loopy so this will not be my best writing!
Me and the kids have been really into biking lately. I'm excited to be raising such a group of cyclists. For anyone who doesn't know, one spring day when I was 14, I was a babysitting job, laying on the living room floor, bored out of my skull, watching the clouds go by out the window, wondering what I needed to spark up my life....and I decided I was going to start riding my bike a lot. I'm not kidding. So I started going 16 miles a day. Wow, was I in shape! It's been an on/off love affair ever since. With the advent of the energy crisis, I've harbored this secret opinion that the silver lining to this cloud is that biking is getting to be recognized for the awesome mode of transportation that it is. Right now I'm wishing I lived just a tad closer to work................17 miles one way is just a bit too much (that's not sarcasm, either).
So anyway, I've seen to it that each of my kids has a high quality bike to ride as soon as they are able. I noticed on one of our rides this week that among the 4 of us on our own wheels, we have 4 different top brands. I ride a Cannondale Silk Path 900 (an absolutely SWEET hybrid that I bought used for 100 bucks and love more than dill pickles); Ana rides a Trek mountain bike; Elijah has a Scott; Ben rides a Specialized. Ben's was Elijah's before; he will graduate to his own big boy bike probably next spring. For now it's delightful to see him pedal like mad on that tiny thing and keep up with the rest of us just fine.
The reason I'm a bike snob is because I know that biking isn't fun for long if you're not on a good quality bike, and that's the truth.
I proud to say Dad is a pretty regular bike rider too and he now shares my opinion that you need to have a good bike.
What the hell am I talking about bikes for.
So anyway...............we also have been having a great time with the little Montgomery Ward row boat from Gramma. Elijah is getting so very brave--he will actually row out in it! Granted, it is tied to the dock at the time, but still. It's Elijah we're talking about.
He and Ben have been tight as wedgie for the last few weeks. The fights break out between Ben and Wil instead of Lij and Ben. Lij and Ben are forever discussing fish. (To quote Ana, again..."I am SO sick of FISH!"
Wils is a delightful blonde four year old. He and I have been sneaking out for bike rides of our own when I feel the need for a real workout (at least once a day). When the others are with I don't go quite as fast (but fast enough--they are nice ridess!). He rides in a carrier behind me and sucks his thumb. We have the nicest rides. Today I plugged him into my microphone so we could visit. Instead I could hear him making motor noises as he drove his little truck that he had brought with him. That, and at one point he said "YOU'RE A BUTTCRACK!"
Zaccy is signing! I'm pretty sure I saw "please" today. I know Brian has been working with him on it; this became necessary because the "more" was getting old pretty quick.
They all had dentist appointments and nobody has cavities. Ben and Wil are obsessed with floss now (not that Wil actually let a dentist touch him). Zac is flossing too but he could be using a garden hose; with gaps the size he has between his total of four teeth (two top, two bottom) he does not need the special glide floss that Lij and I have to have with our tiny mouths and crooked teeth.
Ana's good, ready for school to start. She does a great imitation of Blue the stuck up cat. She says, in a silky voice, "Come here to me............come here to me" (and then she takes off running). We've been emailing a lot when I'm at work and it's a great way to encourage further development of her already excellent lexicon and decent spelling skills. She will be an awesome writer some day, mark my words.
And then she can take over doing this blog.
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