This is the week! of! fun! apparently.
Let me back up.
Carl and I (but Carl even more so due to his work routine) have been major slugs for oh, 3 years. Adjusting to having to drive to work, two working parents, the changing needs of a tot – frankly, a lot of it has been just sink or swim and not a lot of time for what’s good for us. Well, there would have been time had we prioritized exercise but did we? No, we did not. Not really. Getting outside with Noah, yes.
Anyways, a few weeks ago Noah wanted to spend time at my parents’ and I could not hack being there the whole time so I said to Carl maybe we could hang out and have sort of a date. During that discussion we found out we’d both been thinking about a Trail-a-Bike type thing (the one we got cost $99) (this is the third wheel/second seat that hooks onto a regular bike so that your younger kid can ride tandem with you, with his own pedals and chain).
It was delicate on my end because – I hadn’t ridden a bike much since I broke my wrist on one in…1995. Yeah. But Carl had been prescribed biking as a part of his torn ACL rehab and last year we invested in a pretty nice bike for him. And Noah’s daycare is a ten minute drive/20-30 minute bike ride away; granted there is some traffic in between but it’s not (mostly) too bad. But you know, it’s sort of icky to say to your spouse “hey, you should do this.”
But…Carl LOVES getting places in the open air. He used to rollerblade 45 km round trip to work and back.
The risks did occur to me before I brought it up (Carl brought it up simultaneously; it’s Marriage Brain!) God knows it’s scary sending your kid off on a bike. But there are risks in not biking too, and walking an hour round trip is not really in the cards.
Anyways, long story short, we bought the trail bike attachment and except for when he’s been on jury duty, Carl’s been taking Noah to daycare on it and occasionally picking him up that way too. It gives Carl a big round trip and Noah loves it. He LOVES IT. And yuppie me, I love that he is learning that you can get to school on a bike.
He loves it so much…that I bought a bike for myself this weekend too. I went to Toys R Us and got a Skelanimals women’s bike, so shoot me. (It’s 7 speed and a cruiser. It has fenders and a chain guard. It is in no way a serious bike. The system LOVES IT. It is the bike we were not allowed to buy in our youth.)
Anyways that was yesterday and it turned out my helmet cracked when I broke my wrist, or perhaps in the MORE THAN A DECADE in between, so today I got a helmet. And we went for our first family bike ride. We live near many trails…many hills too, but seriously, we go the right way and we can get to a lakeshore trail that goes way out; go the other way and walk down a huge trail and you can go the other way into the city, almost (not quite).
Today we just tooled about the neighbourhood but it was SO MUCH FUN. I thought I would be panicked the whole time watching Carl and Noah on their bike. But no, it was ok.
But wait!
Wednesday early early early I fly to Aruba for a 4 day press trip and get back laaaaaaate Saturday night in time for – Mother’s Day.
So this is like, a banner week.
I really feel like I’m finding myself again. Being active is so much a part of that. Still not really hitting the gym but I have been using resistance bands and a 5 lb weight ball at home.
