Saturday, November 8, 2008

Getting from point A to point B

Erin was very upset this morning that she did not have gymnastics as Katie does. It being a gray day outside, I proposed a bike ride to our local "play cafe", an indoor mini-playground for kids. Erin's tears disappeared almost instantly--right, I thought, lets strike while the iron is hot. 

Already dressed in her leotard, so as to attend gymnastics in spirit, if not in actuality, I suggested we put some pants on her, over the leotard, to protect those almost three year old legs from the cold.  Three pairs later, with much whining and gnashing of teeth, I abandoned the idea that she must keep her legs warm on our bike ride.  After all, she has free will doesn't she?  Perhaps if her legs got cold, she'd "learn something".  OK, almost set to go, I looked up a bike safe route on google maps, got my bike gloves out of my bag, and remembered--oops, I left my bike at work last night.

Erin took this news amazingly well.  She commented that she did that once when she was a baby.   Luckily, I was thinking quickly and decided we'd take the bus instead.  A quick lookup of the bus schedule, and we were out the door.  Less than 10 steps from our doorstep, Erin remembers that she wants to be wearing the "new" (to her) polka dot fleece jacket Momma brought up from the bag of Katie's old clothes.  So, back inside.  New jacket on, socks shoes and leotard clad, we made it to the bus stop.  We got what I interpreted as a few concerned looks from passers by in cars as we sat waiting for the bus--"is that girl naked under that jacket?" I imagined them thinking.  

An hour after the plan was hatched, we've arrived and Erin's happily playing away.  The bus ride was actually an adventure for us, despite the fact that I don't believe AC Transit has a single friendly driver in their vast fleet.  The only other minor setback was a bump on the head, via a roll off of a "hop ball" about 5 seconds after Erin set foot in the play area.  It's good to get those things out of the way at the start.    The rest of the day is looking good.

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