I’m still trying to find a way to keep the little guy warm enough. The snow has mostly melted away, but it’s still in the 30’s. Yesterday his hands felt very cold, even under his snow mittens so today I bundled him up in snowsuit (though we compromised on no ski mask or ski goggles) plus Slanket. I think the short ride to drop his brother off at preschool and home may have been OK, but the threat of snow (what snow?) resulted in a two-hour delay for the start of school so we rode to the Ballard Fred Meyer first.
There was even another cargo bike at the rack–an electric-assisted trike. I was a little nervous that the guy left stuff in his basket, considering my bad experience, but we beat him out and his cargo was still there.
The other parents were impressed that we rode today, but today was a breeze compared to Sunday. And I made sure to stress we were ten minutes late because I went by the store, not because of the weather. I know by the end of the school year I won’t be the only biking parent, but I’m not setting a very good example by running late so often.
The little guy said he was still cold so I took the small bike in the afternoon so he could hide from the wind behind his fairing. And I tied my snowboard jacket around him as an extra layer. I’m not going to want to take this bike if there’s any chance of ice on the road, but today was just wet and cold. It’s only been a year since our crash so I want my longtail and disc brakes if we’re anywhere near ice.
Our afternoon took us to Pike Place Market which was emptier than I’ve ever seen it–even the balloon clown was absent. We had the fish throwers all to ourselves and picked up some salmon and watched them throw a fish around for us. The sun came out as we headed towards home, making for a terrific day. But once we were back home, the little guy said he had still been cold. Back to the drawing board.
Family Ride 
I love the slanket, someone told me you used one when I asked for ideas to keep Jack warm.
Do you cover the bike crash incident in another post? I’d like to read how that went, one of my fears! Also the cargo stealing incident, do you remember which post. So impressed by your blog and your lifestyle.
I think I have links to both those posts in this post…sorry, on my iPhone and too lazy to cut and paste links! Today I used my snowboard jacket in place of Slanket and it worked great, though not long enough to cover his feet.
Have you considered some sort of heat pack. Maybe something microwaveable?
The chemical heat packs (though not ideal) will stay quite warm for up to 6hrs. You could shove some in his shoes and his gloves. Maybe just for the really cold days?
Great idea! I hadn’t even thought about those until seeing a photo of them Bus Chick tweeted the other day…but unfortunately I wasn’t thinking about while I was at REI today. Doh. Will definitely look into them. Thanks!
This cracks me up — I thought I was the only person who worried that her “on-time performance” reflected poorly on bicycling! I try to make a point of mentioning that I have a tendency to add “just one more thing” to my morning when I’m early…making me late. So far I haven’t noticed a higher rate of bicycling among parents at my son’s preschool who frequently hear my excuses. (Rate of bicycling among parents who listen to my explanations is holding steady at a constant 0%.)
Good luck figuring out the layering for your little guy! It seems like it takes us a few rides in a new kind of weather to figure it all out, too.
Thanks for this, Emily! No more apologetic behavior going forward :) A baby-sized motorcycle helmet (do those even exist?) sounds like an easy, but expensive solution ;)
I’m behind again (seems like I only have time to read blogs every-other Sunday), but they have those chemical heat packs Costco, if you have a membership. We haven’t been (so are letting our membership laspe) since we moved from the ‘burbs, but I saw them there every winter. We would buy them for our emergency car kit. Hmmm. So why aren’t they in our emergency bike kit? Doh.
If you’d like something non-chemical and microwaveable, you can put (uncooked) rice in a sock and voila, nukeable heat pack. I learned that at a birthing class. I was the dork in class that asked if the rice should be cooked. Sigh.
I’m a bad Seattleite and don’t have a Costco membership! But the chemical packs were on sale on Skis.com so I added a couple while ordering a toddler snowboard helmet the other day.
Brilliant idea on the rice socks! I’ll give that a try tomorrow.
Hi – don’t know if it warmed up for your guys. Wool seems to be king here for our small riders. Starting in the form of undershirts on the bottom Always long johns on top and bottom( or thick Capillene but wool is warmer) going all the way to sweaters under jackets. We usually pull hoods under helmets (when we aren’t in our snowboard helms that make all the difference in Chicago when we actually have winter.) We never use gloves- our guys do have split bike ” gloves” with liners underneath but we always avoid normal gloves as mittens are much warmer.
When it’s really cold cotton is freezing uder the warmer top layers.
Thanks for the tips, Jenn! I think we’ve gotten through the coldest of our weather, but I’m going to keep an eye out for cheap wool layers a size up for next winter.