We took our first whole-family bike ride today–a 2.5 mile trip to Paseo Verde Park. There’s a playdate there in a couple weeks and I wanted to see if I could make it on a cruiser. There’s a long hill, but it wasn’t too bad. Of course next time I’ll be toting a kid on the too-big cruiser. At least the ride home will be a breeze.

In helmet news, I returned the too-big blue Bell and got the yellow Giro. Not the kewlest color, but hey, it’s got birds on it.

Brandt and I took our first baby/mama bike ride today! It took us a bit of work to get here:

1) Too stubborn to buy the sale Bobike Mini for €30 when we were last in the Netherlands, it took a couple weeks of eBaying to get one. At least $77 + $12 shipping is about €30 these days so I’m telling myself I got a good deal.

2) The yellow Giro Me2 helmet at REI was a good fit, but c’mon–yellow? Not willing to wait for a blue version to get shipped in, we grudgingly bought the blue Bell baby helmet at JT’s. Apparently Giro and Bell are now the same company (I know this thanks to the salesdude stating that fact ten times in five minutes–he must be paid to say so), but the Bell isn’t as adjustable.

3) Which bike to use? Initially (and still) I thought this would require a whole new bike. Don’t I deserve a cute Amsterdam bike or Bianchi Milano to stick my cute baby on? Especially since I lent out my Gary Fisher hardtail and that would have been my best bet otherwise. Of course he’d look cutest on my pink beach cruiser, but I was worried it’d be too hard to ride around with no gears (it doesn’t take much of a hill to make me whine). But I put Dan’s pétanque boules in my basket and successfully rode to the pool and back (7 minutes there, 8 minutes back). So yay! But apparently the stem of the Kustom Kruiser Kosmopolitan is a little too leany to accommodate the Bobike so Dan had to attach it to his boring blue beach cruiser. So I tested that bike with the pétanque boules strapped into the bike seat and it worked just fine…except for the not looking as cool part. Definitely a sign I need another bike.

Anyhow…the ride to swim class this afternoon was a breeze. Brandt really enjoyed it, but I think we need to add sunglasses to the mix because his eyes got a little red from the wind. Everyone really liked the bike seat so maybe we can get a whole baby/mama biking crew going!