We were cooped up and coughing half the day, playing with (fighting over) trains and Legos, but finally made it out of the house to meet a preschool friend for lunch at–you guessed it–Pel’Meni Dumpling Tzar. On the way there I finally talked to the dad who rides a bakfiets I’ve been stalking. I waited through a light cycle which meant getting barked at and gnawed on (by the kids), but it was worth it. They do indeed live in Wallingford (I saw the mom drop down to the Burke Gilman from the ‘hood one day) and have had the bike a few months, they know about the Kidical Mass rides, and that was all we had time for. They wisely got a weather cover for the bike–I don’t think I’ve seen them with the box exposed yet.
I think I’d make a million bucks if I “momvented” a lock for securing kids to bike racks:
The kids cavorted around the Statue of Lenin after lunch and it turned out to be a good thing I put their helmets on prematurely–the little guy whacked into the bronze head first a couple times.
I had wanted to go by Trader Joes on the way home, but the kids were both tired and the little kid started attacking his brother. I love the Big Dummy, but it was certainly nice to have them separated on the city bike. I considered swapping their seats, but wasn’t sure I should have a rampaging toddler unrestrained directly behind me. A bus-load of 44 passengers got to see me pry his mouth off his brother’s jacket before we pulled off 45th where I was able to reason with him. Still better than driving a car with a screaming kid.
Today’s miles: 4.2 miles
April cumulative: 72.2 miles
Family Ride 
A trailer bike seems promising for days like this–it would keep the kids far enough apart to prevent them from hitting each other. We are eagerly anticipating the arrival of ours in May.
Ooh yeah. Maybe I should be more proactive on getting our next setup going. Though there would still be the inevitable “It’s a puppy!” “No, it’s a doggie!” “No say that! It’s a puppy!” arguments to keep me on my toes.
I’ve wondered how I’m going to keep up with 30 Days of Biking if somebody gets sick. Glad to see you’re managing. Now I’m off to see if someone already has a blog called Bakfietsen Stalker.
If I have a super sick day, I’ll just do an 11pm up and down the block ride. Not awesome, but still counts. I would subscribe to (i.e. stalk) Bakfietsen Stalker :)
I’m not sure why, but after I log in with Twitter the “notify me of follow-up comments via email” box is grayed out and unchecked, even when I remember to check it before even typing my comment. Bonus: if I enter a second comment I can check it. Are you just trying inflate the number of comments? :-)
Ha ha ha–yes, part of my evil plan. I always forget to check that damned box. I think I don’t have any control over it as a WordPress.com site (versus self-hosted WordPress.org site). I promise that when familyride.com becomes available and I have full control of this stuff, I’ll make it work. Right now I’d guess it’s a bug in this version of WordPress or this particular theme.