Sunny Ride with my Baby Girl (Jane)

(cross-post from the Sunny Rides blog)

Updates to the Sunny Rides blog have been conspicuously absent for a few months, but not without good reason.

My main distraction:

Jane Anne, my new still-under-warranty baby girl burst on the scene in late October. Before she was even born, I purchased the Burley trailer and began practicing towing a sack of potatoes. I probably should have dressed up the sack of potatoes with a little hat and tiny sunglasses, but I digress.

I was nervous about taking little Jane more than a few minutes from the house... I mean, what if she started crying or something?? You new parents, you know what I'm talking about, while you parents of two or more just chuckle and roll your eyes. I know what you're thinking...

And this is where I force myself into "Mom of three small children" mode as a coping mechanism. See, a mother of one infant behaves a certain way. She jumps when her kid makes the slightest noise. But a mother of THREE, now, there's a rock. She can have one kid banging pots and pans with a spoon, another eating dirt, and the third screaming for a bottle, and all she'll do as she makes her way calmly to the kitchen is pick up the dirt-eating kid and tuck him under her arm, grab a dishrag to wrap around the spoon to muffle the noise, and sing louder than the crying kid while she prepares the bottle. Mom of one gets rattled when her infant sneezes once, while mom of three snickers and mutters under her breath, "Amateur."

I told myself that if Jane cries while in the Burley, and I know she's not in any real distress, I'll just make my way calmly to the nearest stopping point, address the issue, and continue the ride. I'll have to channel a mom of three small children to do this, but it won't be too much of a stretch. I've been channeling a ten-year-old boy since I started riding mountain bikes. What's one more person?

In preparation, Jane and I took a trip first around the neighborhood, which went very well.

In the infant snuggler inside the Burley bike trailer.

Laura and Jane riding around the neighborhood.

We went around the neighborhood for ten minutes on our first outing, then it was just a matter of making longer and longer trips.

On Sunday afternoon, we bundled up well and made our way to Donny's Cafe.

Cute happy kid.

By the time we arrived, despite a few bumps in the road, Janie was fast asleep.


It occurs to me as I write this, that many of these pictures of a kid in a Burley trailer look alike, but as a new mom, I think I'm bound by contract to show you every last one of them. Oh oh!! Here's another...



So TODAY was the big day of lots of errands. First, we went to Target to pick up some photo Christmas cards...

The folks at Target were great about letting me bring my bike and trailer into the store and park it while I picked up my photo cards. Thanks Target people :)

Then we went to Donny's Cafe where we both had snacks.


Refreshments...


After the cafe, we stopped at the bank...


Then we had one last stop to mail a CD to a friend.

Once we had all our errands done, we headed home, taking advantage of the bike path and the chance to get a little dirt under the tires.



It was a great day to be in San Diego.

The only problem we ran into was on the way home. There's this cactus called cholla that grows just about anywhere in the Southwest. This cactus is the reason that I carry pliers in my camelbak when I'm mountain biking. It tends to break off at the slightest perceived provocation and jump into your path, clinging to anything it touches, and breaking off into smaller pieces that stick to other parts of you and your bike.

This is what we came upon today, and before I knew it, I had rolled right over a small chunk that had strayed into the street. The tire of the Burley hit that bad boy and I knew immediately that I had to get it out and then get home before the tire went flat. Now I'll have to add pliers to my list of things I carry in the Burley.

We made it home with air to spare. Yay!! All in all, a great morning of work and play that I was able to share with my little girl.