The Give-Your-Toddler-A-Bike Exercise Regimen

Zach arrived home early from work today and just relieved me from Donovan Bike Duty.

I bought D a bike on Wednesday.  He already has a balance bike we bought months ago, but it's still too big for him to use.  A regular 12" kiddie bike, though, with training wheels? He can not only ride one very well, but has shown that it is about his favorite activity in the whole wide world.  So I was very excited to get him his very own bike to ride, so he would no longer have to mooch off his friend's bike.

I'm still unsure whether that was the best $40 I've ever spent, or the worst...

See, ever since I showed it to him Wednesday afternoon, he's been wanting to ride it non. stop.  Wednesday we rode the bike for 2.5 hours straight, all around the neighborhood.  Thursday we rode for 1 hour in the morning, then another 1.5 hours in the afternoon.  This morning i held him off by taking him to the Children's Discovery Museum instead (which, note to self, DO NOT GO IN THE MORNINGS. I didn't think of this before, but this is when all the schools groups come and the place was beyond chaos. The times we've gone in the afternoon have been much more manageable).  Then this afternoon he had literally been up for maybe 15 minutes before he was asking to go ride his bike again.  I think we headed out around 3:30pm, and it's now almost 5 and he and Zach are headed towards the park.  And he's so obsessed with riding the bike and it makes him so happy, that he's barely interested in anything else at all.  At the park he'll get off and play for maybe a few minutes at a time, then want to get back on and ride around the playground in circles.  It's really, really awesome to watch him catch on so fast, and learn all these little things-- how to stop, how to steer, how to turn himself around, how to get on and off all by himself, how to get off and shift the pedal so he can get himself going without help-- and I am truly, incredibly amazed that he's doing all this stuff already. Not to mention that he's got to be riding a good 2-3 miles each day.

I am also very tired. I thought I was in half-decent shape, but walking all over the neighborhood following the kiddo around has shown otherwise.  I am seriously beat.  We'll be riding and he will be clearly getting tired, but won't want to stop.  What's been happening is that at some point he gets hungry enough that the promise of food will convince him to head home.  We're a little worried about him tiring himself out too much, or hurting his legs, or something, but I figure his little body will tell him when he's had too much.

And by the way, while we're on this subject... these things?

I don't know what these are called. They're some sort of seed pod for some tree that grows all through our neighborhood, meaning these little sticky ball things litter all our sidewalks.  And I've never paid much attention to them before (aside from taking a picture or 2)... until now.  Because now as D tries to ride over them, if he's not going fast enough, they get stuck on the training wheels and make him stop, and get stuck.  And it's kind of really annoying.

Just thought I'd throw that in there.

I may go take a nap now...