Bit o' Ellen

And this kid, too, of course. Can't forget her, even if you tried.

Now that the weather is improving (note I did not say "has improved" - still too unpredictable), Ellen is loving spending time outside. We have some great driveway and yard space for her, but there isn't a fence and I'm still not really comfortable with her being outside without me or Erik. And, if Ellen goes out then Georgia wants out, so I can see how the next 6 months will be spent.

She did occupy herself with this quiet project for awhile one evening - asked for a bamboo skewer to shave chalk and make chalk soup / dust in a bucket. I recall doing the exact same thing at about her age. Actually, it's one of my few memories from my first childhood home - except I scraped the chalk on the basement floor to make dust and I think some water was involved with the rest of the "cooking".

Ellen was invited to a couple of princess birthday parties this spring, allowing for some more use of this darling flower girl dress. One of her pals wears her own flower girl dress to parties - brilliant idea.

Finally, THE BIKE!!
Ellen has been saving all sorts of money since last fall when she learned how to ride her balance bike in anticipation of buying a Big Girl Bike. She had almost $200! We agreed to split the cost of a new bike with her and decided to go for a nice bike that would last her several years. We bought it at Bike America locally, which is also where we got bikes growing up - nice full circle moment. We shopped and researched a bit, then the day we were going to buy it I was feeling terrible, so Erik took her up to pay her portion of the bike and get all set up.

 

Once she got going, she could ride it like a pro! I got this shot, then was going to take more as she rode but (best laid plans ...) she couldn't get on or off the bike herself and had trouble putting enough force on the brakes, so I had to run beside her and she had to yell "BRAKES!" and I had to grab her arm to slow her down. Not the independent biking we were hoping for.

I still think we made the right decision - this bike will be perfect next summer - and I think it was useful for the lesson of saving for something important. It was hard for me to take her to Target or Walmart to get a smaller bike that cost less, and then go back again next year and do it again.

Then, friends to the rescue! We borrowed a smaller bike from a friend that is PERFECT. It will get Ellen through this summer and fall and she is totally independent on it. Truly, we've reached one of the parenting holy grail moments: one child who can ride a bike alone while the other sits happily in the stroller. Next summer probably won't be so easy. We took our first adventure around the block last week and, Ellen needed a few running pushes up the hill, but she did well. We came around to the top of our street, a hill she has ridden down tons of times, and she started to coast and then peddle and then FREAKED OUT about how fast she was going. I couldn't get to her fast enough, ditched Georgia and the stroller in someone's yard, and ran as fast as I could yelling "use your brakes!!!", all the while fearing she would fly off or slam her brakes hard enough that she got thrown off. And, just a second later, she decided she loved going so fast and is now a speed demon. I, meanwhile, was having a heart attack that I wouldn't be able to see cars pulling out of their driveways, nor could they see her - a blur of pink - flying down the sidewalk. Our approach needs a little fine tuning ...