As a parent and keeper of memories, I can’t do it all. I can’t keep an impeccable baby book, yearly photo book, Instagram photo book, journal, art portfolio, clothing capsule, progressive handprint art, one-second-a-day video, memorabilia scrapbook, schoolwork file, etc., etc., etc. Especially not for multiple children. Especially not while keeping my sanity :)
BUT. I do get to choose a few of those things, and go all in on them. From the beginning, I have gone after these month-in-the-life videos for our kids wholeheartedly, and for that I am grateful. They capture the everyday magic moments I know we will love looking back on, like – my current personal favorite – Shep’s frantic sprint for the porch every time a garbage truck rumbles around the corner. Two has brought an explosion of words, a mellowing of disposition, and the sweetest little exchanges with our boy, and I love that this year’s video captures a bit of that. I hope you enjoy this peek into our life together!
I wasn’t planning to write a stand-alone post about June’s big-kid bike, but I had a deluge of questions after sharing a little clip of her riding it (the “whoop”!). It seems inquiring minds want to know, so let’s dive in!
How we prepared for her big kid bike:
We gave June a balance bike for her third birthday. While we’ve generally been happy with it, I think we will choose a different model for Shep, as the seat continually comes loose and twists.
She was a bit short for the bike when it first arrived, and sometimes resisted riding it after the initial rush of excitement wore off. We didn’t push it on her (she often preferred to ride her scooter), but we continually suggested it, and she took us up on it more and more until she was riding comfortably by the summer (age 3.5).
By the time this summer rolled around, she had more than got the hang of the balance bike – in fact, she was flying down hills so fast (without brakes!) that it no longer felt safe. While we considered waiting for Christmas or her birthday to graduate her to a new bike, we didn’t really want to wait until the thick of winter – so we went for it early.
How we chose a big-kid bike:
For these two Enneagram 5s, a big purchase meant diving into some good old internet research. We were guided at the start by a parent friend who had previously worked in a bike shop – he recommended a model with hand brakes instead of coasting brakes. Especially for kids who first ride on balance bikes, coasting brakes (where you pedal backwards to stop) can throw them off kilter since they’re used to a back-and-forth motion propelling them forward.
Priority bikes are not inexpensive, but so far we are REALLY happy with our choice. Here are a few of the things we love about it:
— It seems to be VERY good quality. At this price point, we expect to pass it down to siblings and/or cousins, and so we want it to last. For the price, it’s one of the lighter bikes on the market, it’s easily adjustable, and its chain is grease free. It was also easy for John to assemble. (The price is also less than many of the comparable bikes we considered.) — I love the classic design. It leans neither feminine nor masculine to me (whereas some of the other bikes we looked at seemed much more gendered either in design or color options); this is important, since we already know the next recipient is a boy :) We chose the red color, and it is so fun and vibrant in person! — It has hand brakes. — It has a kickstand – surprisingly hard to find! June has not quite mastered engaging it on her own yet, but we parents are glad to have at least one bike that stands up on its own in the garage (our bikes do not have kickstands, and neither does the balance bike). — 16″ bikes are generally recommended for kids age 4-7, and the experts recommend getting an accurately-sized bike instead of trying to cheat up so you have to replace it less often. The measurements of the 16″ matched up for June; we figure she should get about two years of riding in before passing it on to Shep at age 4 and graduating to a 20″ bike.
How we transitioned from a balance bike to a big-kid bike:
Many of you asked how the transition was from the balance bike to the 16″ bike. While I don’t have any other experience to compare it to, I would say it was pretty seamless. We did not use training wheels (that is the promise of the balance bike!), though you can buy an add-on pack through Priority.
The video you saw on Instagram was taken on her fourth outing. For the first try, we walked to a big parking lot in our neighborhood with plenty of space and fewer curious eyes :) The first day looked like a lot of John holding the bike while she peddled – and also a few tears, because the tread on the pedals scratched her leg a few times (we wore leggings for subsequent outings, which helped!).
On the second outing, she attempted starting from a standstill, and by the third, she could start from a stop independently. A month in, she is still learning to apply the brake to slow down (as opposed to a full stop), to rest her legs while going down a hill instead of continuing to pedal, and to get enough speed to go uphill (we haven’t introduced coming out of the saddle yet). She is loving it and chooses her bike over her scooter on almost every outing now! We are loving it, too, though we’ve had to begrudgingly lace up our running shoes to keep up with her – ha!
What’s next:
As she gains proficiency, speed, and stamina, next on the horizon is trying out a greenway ride with John and I on our bikes, Shep in the trailer, and June on her bike (!). Since she’s so far had plenty of intermittent rest waiting for Shep or her parents to catch up to her, I’m curious to see how far we’ll be able to go with everyone on wheels before she gets tired… once we find a nice quiet stretch of greenway, we’ll try a little experiment!
One final note: if you’re considering a bike as a Christmas gift, I’d pull the trigger sooner rather than later – bikes seem to be an in-demand pandemic item, with inventory going in and out of stock.
Whew – that’s a lot of info about a little bike! Happy to answer any more questions you might have about the big-kid bike, the balance bike, or our experience with either!
With June well into her four-year-old year, I figured it was high time for an update on some of her favorites! (We last checked in right after her third birthday!) As you can see, 4 has been an absolute delight. She is funny, quick to laugh, so loving, and an excellent conversationalist. She especially adores her mama, her daddy, and her cousins, and, as I’m detailing below, a few other things!
— This camera was one of her fourth birthday presents, and it has been a constant companion on hikes ever since. We’ve never actually uploaded the photos to the computer – the real joy is in taking them, it seems – but you can, if you’d like. — Little plastic animals like these and these (or a slightly bigger size like this, this, or this) are MVPs around our house. The kids play with them in the bath, in the sand table, in the garden beds, on trips, on hikes… they’re small enough that they’re easy to tote along or share with a friend and are great for facilitating imaginative play everywhere and anywhere. — Current TV favorites include The Octonauts (Netflix), If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (Amazon Prime), and Clifford (Amazon Prime). Y’all know the Octonauts love goes deep around here (we love it, too – so many fun facts!) – if it’s the same at your house, I highly recommend this coloring book. June has painstakingly colored every page (sob). — Continuing with the Octonauts theme, girl loves splashing in under-the-sea sensory bins and completing this National Geographic Ocean Animals sticker book. (She calls it National Sea-ographic :)) — Other activity favorites: these paint-by-sticker books (June can complete them without assistance), these number and alphabet activity pads, and this unicorn and mermaid sticker book (it’s really good – there’s also this boy version!). To keep those colored pencils sharp, we invested in this pencil sharpener and it is a HIT. — In addition to Magna-Tiles (we also have Picasso Tiles – especially love the set with cars), the number one favorite toy in our house is this ice cream set. June and Shep both play with it daily with great enthusiasm, and have for more than a year. FIVE STARS! — We use this shampoo on her hair these days and this spray-on conditioner to help with the tangles. This brush is still the best! And a big bow or smaller bows. — These sweet princess dresses are perfect for everyday dress-up (or for a Disney trip, when those are a thing again!). A great price and adorable styles. June pairs them with her “party shoes” (also a great price – we’ve bought them in multiple sizes). — We’ve had a Jesus Storybook Bible since before June was born, but this feels like the first year she’s really started to understand it. It’s the most beautiful retelling – a pleasure for all of us to read :)
Whew! Hopefully this gives you a few new ideas for your favorite four-year-old (or gift ideas for the holidays! :)). If you’re looking for most of my past kiddo picks in one easy place, I’ve organized them more neatly here!
At the end of March, I wrote a reflection on our first two weeks of quarantine. It was the beginning of spring and the beginning of an alternate reality that, though we didn’t know it at the time, would still largely be our reality many months later.
And here we are, many months later. While so many aspects of our life remain in that shifted state – masks on, sanitizer at the ready – a significant milestone took place this week when our kids returned to preschool after five and a half months at home. With that, an acute season of our life closed, and I wanted to record a few more reflections here.
I’ve often said that one of my least favorite things in life is trying to work when my children are around. I hate it. It leaves me exhausted and irritable, feeling like I failed at being both a parent and an employee, and since becoming a mom I have put structures in place to avoid it whenever possible. I like to think I’m not a distracted parent, and perhaps that’s why trying to do focused work on my computer while my children are clamoring for my attention feels so icky and alien to everything I try to cultivate in our family life.
Even aside from my life as a parent, I think it’s the Enneagram 5 in me that makes me highly value compartmentalizing my work life and my personal life, and wrapping things up cleanly before I transition from one to the other. (Trying to do something for work on my phone while my kiddos are in the room is literally the stuff of nightmares for me.)
Anyway. All that to say that after our preschool closed, John and I knew attempting to juggle two (almost) full-time jobs with no childcare was simply not an option for us – something in our work would have had to give if we couldn’t have come up with a childcare solution. Thankfully, we did. For five months, we welcomed two of our favorite high school neighborhood babysitters into our home from 9-noon almost every weekday morning. Angels, both.
Was it a risk? Absolutely. Was it a risk that was personally worth taking for our family? Absolutely. We took all the precautions we could and we are so thankful that everyone stayed healthy throughout. The kids had great mornings (mostly going in the backyard splash pad or playing camping/sleepover/pet school :)), we ate lunch together as a family, then nap time/Big Girl Quiet Hour got us through most of the rest of my work day.
(That last hour, of course, was often the worst, as I battled feelings of not having gotten enough done during the day while attempting to wrap things up and meet the needs of kiddos who had spent the day in proximity to us but often not gotten the attention they wanted from us.)
Still, many (MANY) had it much harder than us. Still, we found the sweetness.
Before it got too hot, we ate lunch in our backyard every day – a revelation to eat as a family in the middle of the week! June snuggled up next to me and colored on a few Zoom calls. John no longer had a commute, buying us back an hour of every day.
Outside of work, we did many of the things we are accustomed to doing – backyard s’mores, back-of-the-car picnics, hikes in the woods, neighborhood walks, Saturday morning chocolate croissants – but they were all suddenly imbued with a certain nobility and solidarity: these things are keeping other people safe! We’re doing our part in an awful situation!
We tried new things. I don’t think the male members of my family will ever go back to getting their hair cut professionally. (I certainly will, ha!)
We became closer to other school parents as we texted updates, commiserated, and set up Zoom playdates. This felt like a really big step forward in these relationships, and one that would have been unlikely to happen otherwise.
We indulged in curbside pick-up at basically every business we frequented – what felt like a special luxury as a parent juggling multiple car seats.
We connected with friends in new ways: trading book stacks when the libraries closed, Zooming with high school friends across the country, and signing on for virtual game nights.
And in a revelation that might be one of the longest-lasting, we discovered the beauty of taking ordinary days off from work. Early on, John and I thought we’d help cover childcare until preschool resumed by taking alternating Fridays off (lol to that). These ordinary days of having little adventures together, one parent and two kids, were so sweet. Traditionally, my vacation days have been reserved for travel and big events, but I’m looking forward to scheduling more of these days going forward.
So: week one of preschool in a pandemic — complete. While I never really understood the memes that circulated this spring about suddenly appreciating teachers so much more (maybe it’s having grown up with two teachers, but I already knew exactly how much teachers should be appreciated!!), I am SO thankful that our kids are able to be back in school. (And of course, as grateful as ever for their wonderful teachers.) Sending all my best wishes and compassion to those who are facing harder falls, for whatever reason. xoxo
