Biker in training

Nearly a year after she got a balance bike for her birthday, Tali has decided in the last week that she really wants to ride it.  She LOVES riding bikes outside anyway, but has preferred the safety of her tricycle up until now.  Today, it rained almost all day.  So much rain.  It reminded me of this song Megan sings with the kids about how "if all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, oh what a day it would be!", because we would have been having a candy explosion outside today.

Anyway, we took advantage of a dry episode to go out for a quick walk.  Tali went on her bike and her rather cranky brother opted for the stroller (and we opted to pick our battles and just go with it).  By the way, they were both post-nap, except that neither of them took naps.  This was the second day in a row of no naps for either one of them and they both did mostly fine.  Mateo has been in the process of giving up his nap for a long time now, but Tali just seems to have decided she's done. 

I wonder if there is some karmic thing happening here with both of them stopping napping right before the baby is born?  We've had two loooooooong afternoons, let me tell you.  I've been so spoiled to have four years of kids napping every day.  Anyway, we'll see how long it lasts, but the long afternoons are balanced by the fact that it sure has made her bedtime (and incessant chatting to herself after lights are out) easier.

My whole point is, on our bike/stroller expedition, we ended up going all the way down to our favorite coffee shop and all the way home and she rode her bike the whole way.  And, Sacha came with us, which was an extra treat.  We just mapped it and it was .9 miles!  (I think this is the second longest Tali's ever traveled under her own power, with the longest being one time when she insisted on walking home to our house from Mississippi Pizza, which neighborhood residents will know is a very long walk for a two year old.) 

As well, not only did she ride her bike that whole way, she also showed some flashes of balancing.  She's going to be zooming all over the place before we know it!  Hopefully Mateo's love for his own bike will return when the weather gets nicer and we can go on some family rides together.  We will fit in extremely well in this bike-crazy city if we go out for a ride with our baby strapped into her carseat which is strapped into the bike trailer!