Mommy and me biking - Project Tandem - Kenny G to the rescue

I love biking when its sunny - we also have the pleasure of living very close to one of the most beautiful biking trails in US (See rankings here) - I cannot get enough of the Sammamish River Trail. So of course I want to take Milosh with me - partly so he is with me; and partly so he starts to love this stuff like me - so he will give me company! Thats how was conceived - Project Tandem.
I have had all kinds of biking solutions to ride with your child - and was waiting for the time when he would be ready for tandem biking. Simple - right?! Read on.

Quick history in pictures: Summer 2012 - This was the very first solution we had so we could bike together:

It was good - but it still seemed touch to plan through food and naps for a time that would work. There was this one day when my baby just turned around and wanted to hug me and won't go back to the green seat. It took me some time to realize that he was really cold. Of course he was too young to speak or communicate. Felt so awful, can never forget :( Yet - I loved this biking solution and so did my baby - 'coz I could kiss him, talk to him and have him really close to me!

We only rode a handful of times in the green seat. Next we moved to our second solution; and this time I got smarter and got a second hand trailer (Summer 2014). As practical as it was, Milosh just didn't get enough action for himself. There were only so many times I could trick him into coming along right - and getting him to sleep - so I could ride longer. The only way to get him to come into the trailer was if we had another kid to share the ride. We really enjoyed this - esp when Amaira or Rhea would join! It was fun - but it gets a little tiring to haul two kids and then you have to plan a long time in a park with climbers. Its great fun to listen to two kids talk in their natural environment though - because they really forget they have a grown up listening to them. There is one conversation I remember - Milosh and Rhea - saw a biker with a shirt with hawaiian flowers.

M - "Did you see that shirt?" R - "Yeah" M - "It would be nice to have a shirt with cars on it" R - "Yeah" M - "Do you want me to get you a shirt like that?" R - "Yeah, but I want a half sleeve shirt and matching shorts with it" M-"Okay" M-"Mommy, we need to get a shirt for Rhea" (That was the end of his fairly new gentlemanliness)

Spring 2015 - Now our little biker has learnt to make choices - now he would only bike on his own little orange bike. This Spring we got the training wheels repaired - and now he goes really fast. Once we went to Alki beach to try out a bike - and the lady at the store was very impressed what a boy less than 4 years of age could do. She said that age kids can barely mount or pedal. Milosh is a natural. He has been riding tricycles in his day care every chance that he got. Now he can ride fast - and learn fast. One major fall later - he understood what brakes mean - and he has since done a great job of mastering gentle slopes!

One day he talked me into taking him to the trail - while I jogged next to him. He must have been the youngest rider on the trail. He barely knew his lefts and rights - and people on that trail can be really fast. He did a really good job for the most part.  But it was a lot of hard work for me to help him be on the right side of the road - and this one time - he made a dangerous and confident move from right to left - making a fast biker brake and yell at us "Watch out little rider"-  so I am not doing that again in the near future.

Of course that did not prevent Milosh from asking him to take his bike and my bike to the trail - every single time I ask him to come biking with me! For a couple of times there were huge battles about that - when I kept asking him to try the tandem bike and he continued to want his orange bike.

Finally the problem got solved- the orange bike's chains fell off (ha ha ha ha) - if only I had thought of it myself - I would have done it a long time ago. So finally he agreed. We made it to the trail! It was fairly easy to connect the tandem co-rider to my bike and there we started. We watched other families riding just like us, we saw the ducks, the mountains, the trees. 

It was really awesome - for about 5 minutes. After which - every 2 min or so later, he needed a brake for water, or to collect stones/ flowers/ sticks or to remove the flag from the bike. Of course he had to experiment all the directions in which he could move - and if he can put his legs on one side (which by the way makes the bike shake like crazy) or how long he can drag his boots on the road while riding before mommy screams etc etc etc. I don't even know everything he does because I can't see him when I am riding. Once a lady pointed out that he was putting his hands under the fender - probably trying to touch the moving wheels. On hindsight I should have expected this - and not really lose it. Oh - the joys of riding with a toddler :) 

Finally we turned around (after we reached Rhea's old home - and I knew it might be hard for him to continue for too long) - and then I played some Kenny G on my phone. Somehow that made everything perfect - I was way more calm and we made the return journey without stopping or falling! He made cute observations - he saw a really big tree - and said - oh, thats even bigger than daddy! I love how kids categorize almost everything as "daddy size", "mommy size" and "child size" :) Anyway - he did mention that he can climb the tree - but daddy can not. I was reminded of the stuff Jack Canfield says in his books about how kids naturally believe very lofty things and its only with time and social conditioning we stop to believe in them. Anyway, I hope Milosh continues to believe this for a long time! 

After the ride, I started to thank him a lot for coming with me on the while bike. And he said, Mommy, I really liked it! The picture above represents the latter half of the journey ;) And I really hope he does not grow out of this too soon!