Tuesday

We had a bit of a rough start to our day with a forgotten lunchbox, which turned out to be not forgotten, but lost. Which was then found, which saved one 3rd grader from death by HOT LUNCH.

Our day started to look up by lunch time, and since it was a glorious sunshiney day, I packed up a lunch and threw Emily and John's bikes into the back of the 'burban, and we headed out to our favorite city bike trail. As soon as we parked the car, everyone started doing the potty dance. There was not a bathroom at the start of the trail, but I promised a nice porta-potty, just minutes away down the trail, and we headed off.

John was our fearless leader, tottering slightly on his training wheels. He lead us around a corner, past a dog and his owner, by a garden (now empty, but a few weeks ago it was full of huge carrot tops and tomato bushes and cabbages the size of basketballs) over a little bridge, behind a bike rider, and to our picnic table.

At this point we (not me, okay, but the kids) NEEDED the bathroom. Badly. But the porta-potty was gone. Retired for the winter? Put away before Halloween pranksters could cause trouble? Stolen by a band of bathroom robbers? Whatever happened, it was gone.

Little boys are much better equipped for these sorts of emergencies than little girls. But Emily managed without soaking her shoes.

After lunch we peddled up the rest of the trail, then turned around and stopped at an open field for a game of tag. Then we headed back toward the car. Emily wanted to be the leader on the way back, but John thought he was the only worthy leader.

John wailed and gnashed his teeth when Emily passed him, and then just to make his point, he crashed his little bike. I dusted him off, checked for blood (none), and distracted him with a dead bug. He was fine until he noticed that Emily was, again, the leader. So I left him crying by his bike and started over the bridge.

I could hear him get on his bike and he tried to catch up, but then he really started crying. When I looked back I found that his chain had come off. I had abandoned him with a broken bike. Poor little guy. What kind of mother am I?

After I cleaned his smudged up cheeks, gave him a kiss, and fixed the blasted chain, we caught up with Emily, and she kindly suggested that they BOTH be the leader. Ah, what a beautiful day!