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Ben doesn’t like the quick route to the bike trail, too busy! Instead, he’d like to go a back route to avoid having the children in potential traffic. My dilemma with this is that the back way is longer and it goes over a super steep hill. I don’t want to be a spoil sport, so we tried it out. We rode up to the hill, got a good start and I made it maybe 10-15 feet up it before I just couldn’t pedal! We swapped bikes and Ben pushed the Bakfiets up about a 12% grade – it was like that hill in Chorleywood!

Going down the other side was fun, too! I need to work on my braking skills – the brakes on the Bak were smoking!

We took the trail down to the next park for our picnic lunch. Little Guy was happy to play on the playground. Ben double checked my bike (pic at top), and then we were headed back home on the trail.

We tried a slightly longer route, but still ended up at the highest point.

We’re tired and sore now! So after church, we drove around on the hill until we found what should be an easier route. We’ll find out next time!

We’re getting ready to ride!

If I don’t get moving soon, I’ll collapse into PPD… Not great, I have had times when I feel really stuck when the baby is a couple/few months old and I feel restrained from going places, like when gas prices are up. It just seems rather dreary when I get in that mindset, much better to stay active!

You might not notice at first what’s missing from this old carseat (it “expires” from car usage soon). In order to fit 3 children in the Bak, 2 toddlers plus the baby, we had to trim it a bit. I wanted to keep the built in shade, so we took off the edges from the carrying handle forward. The baby will still have far more side-impact protection than will normally be called for in a bike (we also have a head stability cushion for her).

We were actually missing some seatbelt hardware, hence the 3-point harness. Strangely, my bike is the only one with a rack since my old bike was stolen. The CoPilot has to be used with a certain type of rack, so it’s been sitting around rather useless in our garage for a couple years. Time to salvage parts!

We’re concerned with how baby may be affected by jolts from the road, so we popped the CoPilot cushion under the carseat lining, and may add more padding if deemed necessary. The contraption will be strapped tightly into the Bak, with a cushion between Bak and seat to keep the plastic from scratching or banging against the wood.

To follow the law, we’ve ordered the Specialized Small Fry helmet (starts at about 17.5″). Her head is about 15.5″ now, and adding a bit more padding will help with the fit. I really consider the carseat to be a full body helmet, especially at the low speed I ride, and much safer than having an actual helmet on an infant, but I’m sure not all officers would agree with me.

We stopped by Target today and picked up some battery powered LED Christmas lights. I still need another strand or two to light up the back of the Bakfiets so I’m more visible. We have the Bak-end lit and it looked pretty good.

I handed a strand to the three oldest children and helped the littles put lights on their bikes.

Then we rode into the night to go look at the Christmas lights in our neighborhood!