I fell yesterday on my bike

Don't worry, I was fine. I was barely moving and somehow didn't strain or bruise anything. I still don't know how that works. I think what happened is I was on an incline on the path by the NAC and I stopped to look at a road closure on my route. I tried to do a break stand without thinking about it and all of a sudden my rear tire kicked out to the right and I was down on my left side. 

Honestly it was frightening. 

Things that I think contributed to it was I was on Laura's bike which I think has the original 8 (?) year old tires, the tires got a bit iced / snowed up on my way in, and there was a layer of ice on the path. 

Did I enjoy biking in the snow and cold? Yes I did. Will I do it with my route that has so many non-paths? No. I will waste my time and be slightly less happy because I want to make it through the winter alive and unhurt. 

Man, I'd be so much happier if I could teleport. 

Train!

We got Isaac a duplo train set. With a dog. He was so happy it was so cute. It was totally the right choice. Days like this make me feel that I'm slowly getting better at this parenting thing. 

That is all. 

The more I know, it changes what I know

Having a Florida vacation with multiple young children, it changes my memories of being here when I was 5. The pace, the self imposed calm, the limited tasks, and the seemly out of character treats. I'm doing what my parents did with us as small kids. I'm doing what all parents do with their kids. Not because of any planning, but because that's just how things happen. It's very weird to look back on a 30 year memory and see it from the opposite side.

You are the wheelman

Going around legoland, Isaac loves the rides that have a steering wheel. Most of them he has to be strapped in so he can't actually reach the wheel while the ride is in motion. Except for the tractors in duplo village. He totally drives that. His sister wants him to. He turns the wheel the correct way on the curves and straightens it on the straight aways. 

That boy has a significant amount of fun doing that.

Once he starts going on a big wheel or similar he will be difficult to catch. And he won't want to get off ever. 

What a difference a year makes

Somehow we've gone through a year and things are vastly different. Isaac is much more of a handful by running away with his pivot dodge. We no longer use the term "fraticide" on a daily basis. Alice is in school and learning so much that we never taught her. The kids are hugging and really caring for each other as long as they're not really tired or competing for a toy / object. 

Things are going much more smoothly. This is nice. I didn't know a year ago we would be here. 

Happiness. 

Contemplating the unthinkable

I'm debating about doing something that I'd never thought that I'd do. I'm thinking about going on a trip without a "real" camera. Just our phones.

I feel so unclean.

We're going to an amusement park with 2 small children. I don't expect that there will be anything that I'm really going to want a big camera for. Maybe with an exception of a possible trip to a aquarium, but our dslr doesn't do very well in low light. I've already got a lot of blurry pictures in aquariums.

Now, having said that, my phone's camera is pretty awesome. If you're just counting megapixes, then it has 2 more than our dslr. It does pretty well in low light too. Oh, HDR, slow-mo, etc. Our dslr only takes awesome pictures. Who needs that?

I love taking great photos that I'm proud of. It just becomes a decision of weight / bulk / durability vs being able to do stuff with the kids. Maybe that means for the next camera I should be focusing (pun intended) on a smaller camera. :-/

Isaac words

There is no way that I'm going to remember how Isaac says things. But like all kids around 1.5 years, it's super cute and makes me so happy. Yay he's saying words!

So, without delay, I'll try capture some words.

• Ray ray... preeee-ease! (raisins please)
• Ahh-ya (Alice)
• Mine (mine)
• Doooonnne (done)
• teese (cheese)
• That (that)

I had a ton more, but my brain had decided to check out. That should be enough for now.

The best commute ever

It's been a while since I've been on my bike. Being sick, getting over being sick, poor weather, etc. I've avoided it because I didn't want to get sick again.

This week I started to bike again. It's also has been abnormally warm, so that helped. And I really enjoy biking by myself. It's super fast, no one talking all the time, don't have to be super-paranoid about every car or pedestrian doing something that would bring me to certain death, etc.

But I miss biking with my little guy sometimes. So much. It just bums me out to think about what I am missing. It's like if you eat hamburgers all the time and you really enjoy them. But then you try prime rib roast or something likewise fancy, no matter how much you enjoyed burgers before it's a bit hard to go back to them.

Yesterday got up to 19C (feels like 23), so on the bike home no mitts or neck warmer for Isaac. And no cold wind either. He was going "weee!!" and ring ring ringing the bell as we biked down Laurier. He made many people smile, and at least a dozen people laugh. Happy children have that effect on people. We pointed about ducks, dogs, etc. that we saw. He pointed out bridges. Like, all of them. We talked the whole way home.

I missed that today. My ride today was too fast. No one was talking the whole time. And I had no one to keep me safe from every car or pedestrian doing something that would bring me to certain death.

These things seem to be inconveniences at first - loading a wiggly person on my bike, dealing with the extra weight, etc, soon become the best part of my day. How often can you have your arms around your child while you talk about all the things you see and experience for 20-30 minutes twice a day?

I'd like to take a selfie with him on the bike but 1) it doesn't feel safe 2) I've got a new fancy phone that I'd sad and much poorer if it got damaged. Just know that we're awesome on the bike.