i want to ride my bicycle, i want to ride my bike!

so, you may remember a post i did a long, long time ago on the fact that we blew part of our economic stimulus check on a Burley bike trailer - with the hopes of me getting into shape and biking molly to-and-fro (ha!). well, it only took me a year (and a few days) but i finally managed to take the 10 minutes i needed to get the Burley hitch hooked up to zero's bike and ready to rock-n-roll! molly even helped me (she's quite the handywoman). and on June 13 we strapped on our helmets and went for our maiden voyage! [if you haven't already, check out that first posting of molly in the Burley - scroll to the picture at the bottom - and then check out the picture above, she's getting so big!]

where did we go? we biked around our lovely neighborhood and specifically went to look at a house for sale nearby that i want my mom to buy. i'm trying desperately to convince my mom to leave her family and friends in the lovely, sunny Bay Area where she has lived for 39+ years and move to Portland. a girl can dream, can't she?! :) so here is a slideshow of our trip to see "grandma's house" (you can see it behind zero in the pic with him waving).


this past weekend i took Sunday off (Happy Father's Day to all you guys out there) and the family went to the City of Portland's Sunday Parkways event in North Portland. what a blast! they close off streets to car traffic in between three parks here in NoPo and people can bike, walk, anything but drive between the parks. and at the parks they have music, food, and booths with fun things like, get a free bike tune-up and helmet check (we took advantage of that to get molly's checked out). they even have bike valet parking! it was so much fun - this will definitely be a family tradition!

molly even got a balloon, her current obsession. i myself am not a big fan (too many childhood "traumatic events" around the popping of balloons i think) but while i was down the way getting a delicious mango-on-a-stick (covered in chili powder and lime - it was amazing!), daddy got her a blue balloon. you can see it attached to the Burley on the left. i have to say, getting to ride around on the closed streets was pretty awesome!

and here is molly and daddy playing at the Kenton Park while listening to live music!


a really wonderful Father's Day was had by all!

molly accouterment

babies come with lots of things. we've done pretty good (or at least, i like to think so) staying away from many of the baby accessories, but there are a couple of things that have been really handy. for instance, the food mill! yep, we make our own baby food here at chez may/feeney all thanks to the our food mill and the awesome book our friend Martha gave us, Super Baby Food. stick stuff in, turn the handle, and presto-change-o...molly food! we've done yams, mango, apple, carrots, and tonight, baking potato. i love it! the picture of it is with carrots.

unfortunately for the carrots, molly gave them a gag-factor of 7 (on a scale of 1 to 10) so we're leaving them off the menu for the time being. but hey, they still weren't as bad as mangos (gag-factor 10+)! actually, with the exception of yams, she really does seem to prefer white things (oatmeal and rice), so we hope potatoes are a thumbs up.

next baby gadget...well, let me begin at the beginning. first off, i have high hopes that sometime in the very near future i will stop being a lazy so-and-so and start riding my bike again- which, by the way, is still sitting in the basement at work from the last time i rode it in, somewhere around 12 weeks of pregnancy when i was sicker than a dog. so, once i get my bike back home, and i start riding it all the time to get into super-duper shape, i am of course gonna want molly to tag along with me. and because i could never do one of those seats attached to the bike (because i've been known to fall over just standing with the bike at a stoplight) i decided we needed a trailer. i asked around, got some recommendations and folks said "go Burley"! it was spendy (thank you economic stimulus check) but i have to admit, so far i'm impressed.

side note: what does a sleep deprived mom do in the middle of the night while her husband is in a play and her daughter is sound asleep? sleep herself, right? no, i decided to put the Burley together. the picture of it in the living room was taken at 12:30 AM. what's wrong with me?

but i was able to put it together, which is the first plus. and this was after finding it had a part that broke during shipping, but the Burley folks were super nice and with no questions asked, sent me a replacement. plus they are local (Eugene, OR). so i'm pretty excited about it.

we tried it in stroller mode today (you can add a wheel to the front and use it like a stroller, or attach it directly to your bike). molly enjoyed it for the most part. i think she's gonna end up loving it! plus, it has tons of room, so we can stick groceries in the back and heck, maybe we'll throw harley in there too!) and now, finally, what you've all been waiting for, a cute picture of molly in her new trailer! (also note she is wearing her new leg warmers, they are kinda hard to see, but trust me, super cute!)

ok, i really should try sleeping. until next time...