Big wheel

May2

Today coulda been so cool! Brandt and I were going to take the bus for the first time to go downtown to the Denny Park play area opening celebration, complete with face painting, balloon animals, and live band. It was also Seattle Yacht Club Opening Day with big boat parade, but due to the weather we skipped that, too.

I took advantage of the situation and napped much of the day while Dan and Brandt did who knows what. And I got a little outdoor time, too, taking Brandt for rides on his new (free!) bike at 7am and 4pm, in between rain showers. He doesn’t pedal yet, but he tries to now and again. And he loves pushing his way over obstacles, like the two cement curbs in the neighbor’s driveway. He loves this bike so (too) much that I’ve taken to leaving and entering the house through the back door so he doesn’t see the thing and insist on riding it.

Mayday

May1

Thanks to an early nap we were able to race to the zoo for opening day of the Humboldt penguins. Being too cheap to pay $5 for parking, I decided to see if I could make it up the 50th Street hill on my bike. Holy penguin that was hard! Never again, pregnant and toting a toddler or no. But we made it to the exhibit by 3pm and after an hour I finally caught my breath.

Nuovo bicicletta

Apr21

This afternoon, we took advantage of the nice day and rode our bike to the playground. It was naturally packed so we headed along to our first and last visit to Souped Up Cafe. I say our last visit because they’re closing down soon rather than pay more rent. It was too hot for soup, but their sandwiches sounded amazing, too (Ham and Swiss: Cob-smoked ham, caramelized onions, Swiss, garlic butter, and stone-ground mustard). But for a panini which was supposedly already made and just had to be smushed/cooked upon order, we still had to wait 20 minutes. We finally made it back to the lake and one of us lounged in the grass while the other ran around finding rocks.

This is the first picture of my pretty new bike. Sweet, eh? It’s a Bianchi Milano Citta and it’s an early push present for baby passenger number two, due mid-July. It is soooo nice having eight gears after riding around with just one. It was hard to choose which city bike since there are so many out there these days. I was tempted by the Gary Fisher city bike, too, because there’s a little hole in my heart from having sold my Hoo Koo E Koo before the move.

Bike Expo

Mar15

This afternoon we braved the off-and-on rain (better than the enormous snowflakes this morning) to attend the Seattle International Bicycle Expo. We were hoping to find a cheap Burley bike trailer, but they weren’t an exibitor. However, we saw some very neat stuff, like bike frames made of wood (!) and we got a lot of maps and in the kid zone Brandt got to play Pin the Wheel on the Bike and make a bracelet out of inner tube. We didn’t test drive the Madsen cargo bike, but Brandt found it fun to sit in.

Wobbler on wheels

Mar6

Brandt and I went to W.O.W. (Women on Wheels) at Gregg’s Cycles last night so we could get free stuff and free food and meet Jennie Reed, Olympian and World Champion track cyclist. It was really fun, but we had to leave before the show was over when Mr. Molar teething toddler started chewing on bike tires.

W.O.W. inspired me to finally get the bike out of the garage and ride around Green Lake today. I only managed one lap because it was so cold my ears and hands got frostbite. Brandt’s ears were OK from the helmet, but his hands got pretty cold, too. Mittens for both and a hat for me next time.

I’m not sure where Brandt got the idea to ride his bike with xylophone/piano thingy. We saw lots of bikes at the show last night, but nothing like this.

Chanukah/Christmas bike

Dec25

It’s snowing so we had a white Christmas today. Delivery trucks have been stranded all over town, but luckily the bike I ordered came. It’s a little too big for Brandt (I just noticed it’s for ages three and up, oops!), but he seems ready for pedals and Dan rolled up a towel so he could sit far enough forward to reach them. It’s the Plan Toys Wooden Trike and it was 60% off and while it’s very cute, it hasn’t got much of a turning radius and it doesn’t pedal very easily.

Seattle!

Dec13

Big news: we moved to Seattle the day before Thanksgiving. It’s cold here. We haven’t been brave enough to venture out of the house every day, but I figure we’ll toughen up.

With all this indoor time, Brandt has figured out how to steer his Radio Flyer Scoot About. He needs help getting over the lip into the kitchen, but otherwise he can scoot all over the first floor.

Bronze for baby

Oct25

Brandt and I rode the 5 mile family ride of Viva Bike Vegas this morning. We came in third! Well, Brandt came in third and I came in fourth. Yeah, it wasn’t a race, but we made sure to stay in the lead group and came in behind a little girl and her mom. Brandt was by far the cutest participant.

Bakfiets

Oct4

We went to market by bike this morning. I rode the mamafiets with Brandt on the front and Fay on the back, Juul rode her stylish blue cruiser, and Marijne took Rien’s bike (I don’t know if it’s called a papafiets…probably not). Bakfiets are all the rage here now, but I’ll take my Bobike any day. Our purpose for hitting the market was fresh stroopwaffels (well, that was my purpose…the girls needed vitamins and new shoes). You may not believe this, but I was not too greedy to share my stroopwaffel with Brandt…but he ungratefully dropped his piece on the ground after making a face at it so I have suspicions he’s an alien replacement. Alien or not, he gobbled up a loempia later in the morning so he wasn’t undernourished.

Muis op fiets

Oct3

Brandt and I are in the Netherlands! The mouse insisted on playing from three to four in the morning, but otherwise we had a good night, sleeping until 9:30 local time. We borrowed my cousin Marijne’s mamafiets (I’m not sure what makes it a mamafiets–it has hand brakes and gears so it’s a much better ride than an omafiets) and cycled to the train station to meet my friend Deirdre, coming in from Delft.

We did some eating and shopping and despite drizzling for our ride to town, the weather was beautiful (beautiful=sunny, but still very cold). We first stopped for a drink in Grand Cafe Brinkmann and Brandt played with a little dutch brother and sister until we were told to keep our kids off the floor. Brandt’s become quite the little lover and repeatedly hugged the little girl. He hugs properly, around the shoulders now…last week he was hugging his friends around the neck, so maybe more like choking. I (and the recipients) like this method better. Brandt took a nap soon after (chasing and hugging is tiring work) so he missed out on his first uitsmeiter, but once he woke up we found a herring booth. He wouldn’t eat the haring, but he did like stabbing the pieces with a toothpick, dipping in uitjes, and feeding to me. We’ll try again tomorrow.