My Mother’s Day featured not only our traditional family hike (complete with kids whining and asking “How much faaaaarther?” and also a SNAKE SIGHTING which I will write about tomorrow) but also a bike ride, thanks to this awesome present:
We bought the kids new bikes for their birthdays a couple of weeks ago, and my husband and I were also in the market for bikes, so we stopped at the bike store after our hike. My husband found a bike he loves but is waiting to see if a connection of his can bring the price down. I tried out a functional but ugly bike there as well, but honestly, I wanted a cute bike which I know is sooooo immature of me. So we stopped at another store across the street where I saw and fell in love with this adorable hybrid bike. I rode it around the parking lot, declared “This is the bike I’ve wanted all my life,” and we brought it home.
After a short ride with FreckleBoy, reality set in. The hills in this neighborhood are STEEP! I had to collapse on the couch for a couple of hours. I guess doing yoga doesn’t make me as fit as I thought it did. But I am so psyched to cruise around on my new bike with the kids, as soon as we can convince FrogGirl she wants to learn to ride her new two-wheeler (any tips on teaching kids to ride bikes??)….
And in full disclosure of how absolutely spoiled rotten I was this Mother’s Day, I should tell you that my husband got me one of these:
That is a Kindle; he gave it to me a couple of weeks early as he was afraid (quite rightly) that I would buy several books in the meantime that I could have bought on the Kindle. I have never been on board with the notion of ebooks, but I think I may be a convert. I love this thing! At the very least, it will be worth it not to have to lug 30 pounds of of books along when I visit my in-laws in Spain this summer.
And now, a very spoiled, very grateful and very tired Yogamum is going to take a very bubbly warm bath…
I hope you all had a very happy Mother’s Day as well!
May 11, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Happy Mother’s Day!
What a cute, cute bike.
The Kindle looks interesting. I haven’t been much interested in techno reading things, but you’re right, lugging around books is a bit of a pain.
Another snake. . . ?
May 11, 2008 at 10:43 pm
Happy Mother’s Day, YogaMum, I love your bike. I have a similar-looking one, which my husband calls my granny bike, but it makes me happy.
May 11, 2008 at 11:56 pm
The bike: Totally cool!
The snake siting: Remind me to tell you of the snake standoff I once had on a bike trail
The Kindle: I have one too (although I keep forgetting to buy books for it). One thing that nobody ever says in defense of ebooks, like the Kindle is that they are much better for the environment than real books. No killing trees to make them and no using fuel to ship them to bookstores and from Amazon, etc. I do love being able to look things up with the online dictionary and access Wiki anytime too.
Happy Mother’s Day!
May 12, 2008 at 7:43 am
That bike is the coolest! I love old school cruiser type bikes. When I was teaching my girls to ride their bikes, I walked along behind them with my hand on the back of the bike seat to just guide them a bit and let them know I was there in case they needed help. After a couple of days they got more confident and eventually I just let go. I will always remember them half a block away asking “How am I doing?” and then shouting back “Looks good from way back here!”. The joy and sense of accomplishment on their faces was amazing. I’m sure there’s an analogy for life and yoga in there ;->
May 12, 2008 at 8:39 am
Bikes!! I love my bike that I bought for my birthday. We also have a bike trailer for the kdis that attaches to my bike, so I’ve been riding around all over the place, with them.
May 12, 2008 at 10:07 am
Ohhh, SO JEALOUS… I’ve been wanting one of those Kindles and couldn’t justify the expense. (Especially as I read, oh, a book every other month or so… Sigh…)
But still! BOOKS! Many of them! All on one device! The thing looks awesome. Let us know what you think of it!
May 12, 2008 at 10:19 am
Both the bike and the Kindle look amazing. I hope to hear more about them as you use and enjoy them. Happy belated Mother’s Day!
May 12, 2008 at 10:49 am
When you start up the hills, don’t think of them as obstacles. Just shift to the gear you need and go to work. If you keep up your attacks on your local hills for a while then, before long, you won’t think twice about riding up and down them all day long. Or at least for a couple hours.
May 12, 2008 at 1:00 pm
That is a cool bike. I think finding a bike that speaks to you aesthetically is important; you’re more likely to ride it if you feel cool or cute while you’re working your way up those hills.
About teaching FrogGirl to ride: If her feet can easily reach the ground when she’s sitting on the saddle, take off the pedals and let her use it as a push bike (on flat ground) for a few days. Soon she will get used to the idea of balancing and then you can add the pedals and she can start hammering like Sarah Hammer.
May 12, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Wow! You got a Kindle! Awesome. I’m so jealous - they aren’t actually out in the UK yet. Happy mother’s day indeed.
May 14, 2008 at 4:31 pm
I just got a Kindle too! Aren’t they cool!
My dad taught me to ride a bike by taking me to the top of one of the hills in our yard and going down the hill with me as I pedaled. Once my speed was high enough for me to balance easily, my father would let go of the bike and shout encouraging remarks. The bike kept enough momentum after reaching flat ground that I could keep pedaling along, at least for a bit. Once I could keep my balance well while going fast, I started working on riding slowly.
Your discovery about the meanings of the snakes was fascinating.
May 14, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Teaching kids to ride a bike: I taught my brother to ride a bike this way: we lived behind a golf course (way less cool than it sounds) and we took the bike to the course where there was a big grassy hill. He got on the seat and I got on the back fender-type thing, because he was not able to ride by himself yet and would only do it if I was on the bike with him. So we pushed off down hill and about halfway down, I rolled off the back onto the grass and he went the rest of the way. Of course, once he figured out, after several feet of solo riding, that I was no longer on the bike, he fell over and got really mad at me. Until I pointed out to him how far he went down the hill by himself. He pretty much had the confidence to ride after that.
My father taught me to ride: he took one training wheel off my bike and told me that when I could ride proficiently with one training wheel, he would take off the other. Riding with one training wheel was a pain. My bike would be tilted to one side on the one training wheeel and the only way I could get off that wheel was to yank my bike over to the other side with enough force that I would consistently fall over. He would not relent on removing the second training wheel, saying that I was not showing enough proficiency to justify removing the second training wheel. After many scraped left knees, I finally found the wrench, removed the last training wheel, then rode solo without any trouble.
Either way, it takes determination, if not a bit of dumb luck.