We came right home and Jonathan started to put it on the car and figure it all out while I made some dinner for Grandma and fed the boy. He put it on the car and put his bike on it, and it looked great! We decided to get my bike out from the shed. This is a bike that I have never actually ridden, because I got it while I was pregnant, and just haven't really thought about it since James was born. Now, I am not exactly a hard-core bike rider. Actually, I am not even a bike rider, period. I think the last time I owned a bike was at least ten years ago, and I think it was pink and purple and teal. Yeah, good times. While Jonathan and I were dating, we used to ride his bike, Gary, together and had a lot of fun (if your definition of fun is yelling "we're gonna die! we're gonna die! you're gonna hit those cars!" - no, actually I did have lots of fun riding with him, and we never did crash into any cars!).
Once I borrowed Jonathan's bike. It was after we had only been dating a week, about three years ago. It was also the last time I rode a bike. We were on campus and I had to go to the testing center on the other side of campus, so he said, "why don't you just take my bike" - great idea, right? Well, I am embarrassed to admit that it had been many years since my last bike-riding experience, and so I was a little rusty, and his bike was just kind of big for me and the seat was a little too high - and, well - I totally fell off the bike into a bush, like two seconds after I got on the bike. Man was I embarrassed! But I pretty much just said "I'm fine!" and got back on and rode (very wobbly, might I add) away to the testing center.
So tonight I was excited and Jonathan washed the bike off for me and lowered the seat, and I decided to give it a try. You know that expression, "it's like riding a bike?" Well I think that's crap. I totally used to be good at riding a bike (I swear) and would ride all over the neighborhood with no problems. So I get on the bike, it's slightly wobbly, but I'm fine - I take off and go for a little spin in front of our house and around a cul-de-sac, and then I come back. Well I swear that the front wheel was slightly wobbly, and the brakes didn't work that well, they needed to be tightened a bit (too bad we didn't check that before...) and as I went through this dip and turned to pull into the driveway, I didn't turn quite sharply enough and I slightly hit the curb and kind of biffed it (but with way more dignity than last time - this time I pretty much stayed on the bike and the bike stayed upright - yay, go me!) But I totally whacked my toe on the curb (I was wearing flip flops), and totally jammed it. I don't think it's broken, but it sure hurts and it swelled up and I am limping all over the place. Sad day.
So that was sad. I was sitting on the porch, holding James, while Jonathan finished putting the bikes on the rack. Oh and then James spit up carrots and pears ALL down my leg and on my foot. And my pants. And I had mud on my leg from riding the bike.
We hadn't eaten yet, so we hurried and ate some sandwiches quick, and we were going to go return a redbox movie quick and then go visit my family for a little while. We were in a hurry to return the movie, and we all got in the car and backed out of the driveway, through a big dip and into the street - and we heard this awful noise. We had been in such a hurry to leave, and James was fussing a lot and we were just trying to get on the road quick, and we hadn't even thought to make sure the bikes were placed high enough on the rack so they wouldn't hit the ground when we went through a dip. It was awful. Jonathan got out of the car to see if either of them had been damaged, while James was crying and I was putting ice on my big toe. He got back in the car and said he thought that his front wheel on his bike was bent a little. We were so sad! His brand new bike. :( So we pulled in front of our house and I got out to look with him. We think it is only just slightly bent, like you can hardly tell at all. But still, it is his brand new bike! As we were trying to assess the damage, poor James was just crying and crying in the car.
We decided to just pay an extra dollar on our redbox movie (the story of our lives) and just go to my parents' house. We adjusted the bikes so they were sitting higher on the rack and so they probably wouldn't touch the ground again. But we wanted to be sure, so every time we got to a dip I limped out of the car and watched as Jonathan drove like 2 miles an hour through the dip. It was great times.
When we got in the house, my family was all happy and excited to see us and we were just all sad, and didn't quite know how to tell them that his new bike they helped get for him might be bent. But after further examination, we really think it's not bent too bad at all, just very slightly. We think it'll be ok. We showed them my toe and they felt bad for us and my mommy took care of us and fed us pizza and ice cream. Don't you just love mommies??
So we were having a nice visit and everything was ok. And then, suddenly James just started screaming, he was crying so hard. Nothing we did would help - and we were trying to figure out if he was teething or something. It was the weirdest thing. But then I realized what was wrong - lately he's been struggling with, well, not having enough fiber in his diet, and things just won't move very well, and as you can imagine it is not very fun. We switched from rice to oatmeal and have been going way easy on the bananas, and have even tried some prune-apple juice, but for some reason he is just still struggling, poor kid. So our sweet boy was just crying SO hard and it was the saddest thing ever.
My awesome sister Annie ran to the store for me and bought him some prunes. By this time it was way late, way past his bedtime and so he was not only...struggling...he was exhausted. And then we started to feed him this strange food and I'm sure he was so confused and sad. And when you're confused and sad, you just need your mommy, right? Well, his Grandma was feeding him and I was just holding him on my lap and trying to comfort him, and all of a sudden he decided that he just wanted to cuddle, and he turned his head and buried his face into my shirt. And his face was completely covered in prunes. It was hilarious - at that point, I was so tired and I just didn't care, so we just cuddled away and he actually seemed to really like the prunes, he ate the whole jar! What a champ. It's funny how, as a mom, you just get so used to having drool and snot and spit-up on you that you get to the point where you just don't care!
He finished the prunes and he got a nice bath and got all cleaned up, and now he is sound asleep and is doing much better. And Jonathan rode his bike and he thinks it is just fine. My toe sure hurts, though!
Here are some great pictures of the evening. I know, I look lovely. Oh and to top it all off, James had to wear a pink bib, cuz that's all Grandma had. Poor kid.
