Biking Fun for All...at Least for Most of the Time

We own a very nice Chariot child carrier for bike riding. We bought it when we had Nicholas...and used it all of 5 or 6 times. With a bit of nice weather this weekend, we thought we'd take our bikes to Forest Park and let Charlotte try it out, along with her new helmet.

She started out so happy.... She loves her helmet as you can see. I think it's because she has admired Nicholas' for so long!

Nicholas was certainly rarin' to go

It's such a beautiful ride through the park

A fantastic view of the St Louis Art Museum

Here's where we get to the not so fun part. Charlotte started fussing/crying about 45 minutes in and could only be consoled by Tom riding on the bumpy, bumpy, bumpy ground beside the bike path. She was laughing like crazy during those parts. We kept peeking back during the ride when she wasn't happy and things seemed fine. Yet when we were done, we realized a few things:

1) Her helmet was not so comfortable leaning back against the Chariot for a long-ish ride

2) There were some puddles (especially on the off-road parts Tom was doing to keep her happy), and apparently the puddles were splashing up onto the screen and through to her!

We could see why she wasn't totally enamoured with the ride. Perhaps an REI helmet fitting is in order...and a more conscious avoidance of puddles!

Charlotte perked up as soon as she was released, and she and Nicholas started running around the trees as Tom loaded up the car.

I'm sure she's laughing with him, not at him as he tumbles to the ground

Yep. He's laughing too.

With a few modifications, I think we'd be in for a great time riding bikes together. Nothing like wearing out Nicholas on an hour and a half ride!

A Chilly Night at Busch Stadium

Despite some low temps (at least there wasn't any snow!), we decided to pack up the family for a Cardinals game. We can't turn down great free tickets, right?

We huddled together with coats and blankets. I love Nico's intense look of concentration! He was very concerned that we have gotten some new players that he isn't yet familiar with. I'm sure he'll have their names and numbers down after a few games.

Charlotte and Nicholas were treated to a big pretzel. Charlotte dunked hers in Daddy's nachos and seemed to like it!

Seeing (and being frightened of) Fredbird earlier in the day didn't deter her love. Here she's yelling "Be-Bir!" at the mega screen when he showed up there.

We didn't make it the whole game (somehow I expected Charlotte to snuggle into me and sleep...that didn't happen!), but it was great to get out to the ballpark for the first time this season as a family. Hopefully more free tickets are in our future!

Gas Station Entertainment

You may think I've sunk to a new low in finding entertainment for my kiddos... Here's the scoop - FredBird, our beloved Cardinals mascot, was making a one-hour appearance at a new gas station convenience store that just opened by our house. We got a postcard announcing his visit. Nicholas was SO excited, and even Charlotte spoke of almost nothing but "Be-Bir" all morning. When we actually arrived, Nicholas ran right over for a FredBird hug. Charlotte screamed and snuggled me with all her might. She only THINKS that she wants to be around Be-Bir.

Apparently all local moms didn't come to this event, and mine were the only kids there! Nicholas soaked it all in, and was particularly taken by the live ESPN radio guys.

Nicholas was clearly comfortable from the get go. By the end (yes, we were there for almost 45 minutes!), Charlotte at least managed to give FredBird a high five. In my defense, it was absolutely the nicest gas station I've ever been in (so I guess their marketing campaign worked!), and if FredBird was there again, we would be there too!

Cookies Anyone?

The setup - We have a legacy laundry chute. It has no opening on the 2nd floor...and doesn't open into the basement anymore. Yet we still have a cute little square door on our main floor. For as long as I can remember, Nicholas would open the door, yell "Anybody want cookies?" first towards the basement, then towards the upstairs. I have no idea why, and we've never gotten any kind of an explanation from him. As of today, the torch has been passed, and Charlotte now is asking the unknown dwellers of the laundry chute about cookies.

1 1/2 Already?!?

Can it be that Charlotte is now 18 months old? Yes it can.

As she is too young to describe in detail what kind of 1/2 cake she'd like, we took the easy (and oh-so-delicious) route of picking up cupcakes from Jilly's Cupcake Bar. We each got to have half of a cupcake.

She may seem a bit disinterested...but trust me, she got into it.

See. There's a happy, cupcake-filled girl!

Yum!

It's hard to remember back before Charlotte was part of our family. In her own special way, she really does make us complete!

Swim, Nico, Swim!

There I sat, chatting with the other moms as the kids were in the pool for swimming lessons. I look up, and I see Nicholas, swimming without his floatie belt all the way across the pool! I was freaked out, then impressed! For a boy who has had really limited time in the pool, and only 10 lessons, he's coming on strong! As we drove home, he said "I'm REALLY proud of myself!". So are we, buddy!

A New Passion

In a desperate attempt to get dinner going the other day, I put Charlotte in her high chair, and grabbed a sheet of address labels that I'd gotten in the mail and stuck in the kids' sticker box. Charlotte went to town and used the entire sheet, putting them one by one on a piece of paper...and I did get dinner done! Since then, she asks to do it multiple times per day. I hate to admit that I used to throw those away (how many address labels does one household need??), but I'll be saving them from now on. Thanks to Grandma King for stepping up with some to tide us over until we get more in the mail. We accept any and all label donations!

Which one to choose? Which one to choose?

Perfect placement is key...

So proud!

Not to be outdone, Nicholas made his own sticker paper. He, however, is not satisfied with using just excess address labels!