She stoops to conquer

MZ is in love with stoops. She can't pass one by without wanting to rest a bit, or if there are multiple steps, she wants to scale and descend on her own. Stoops are a bit shorter than regular stairs, and she's definitely noticed.

That's how she dinged her nose (no, we didn't pierce it, as one mama asked). Last week, walking up Folsom to pick up our veggies, MZ saw a stoop she couldn't resist. She walked up the three stairs, then down, and demanded Again when I tried to move us along. On the second attempt, she bit it, and I heard a nasty clunk as I lunged for her. I'm mystified that she has a skinned nose and no bump on the head. She cried a bit, and then demanded Again. She was adamant that she would do it on her own, and she did, very carefully and very successfully. Good on her! She's ready for bitterbiking, our mountain biking group of days past, where the general rule is Try three times.

Worlds collide, her timing is perfect. We've been missing the trails these days, and her fascination with bicycles caused us to seek out a bike trailer. R. tuned our bikes and I've scrubbed the hand-me-down trailer into usable condition. We're ready to go!

For the longest time, we didn't miss mountain biking that much. I hadn't been able to mountain bike for a few years, what with multiple consecutive pregnancies and the emotional loading of any activity I could do Not Pregnant. Where those who arrive at parenthood on the Express might be understandably wistful for past "adult" activities, I venture that for those of us who take the Local, we've spent enough time being wistful, as well as angry and frustrated with the the seemingly endless line of can/can't and What's next. For me it was easier to say Fuck it, I'll mountain bike when I'm done with this bus.

And then we had MZ. We were so tickled by her that the idea of leaving her behind so we could ride for three hours on a weekend just didn't hold that much appeal. R. and I have been so aware of the fleeting nature of every stage of this experience. Soon she would be bored of us and we would rearrange our weekends to accommodate separate activities, but until that time, we were happy to centipede along, trying to wring every minute we could out of her infancy.

Now here we are with a kid who loves the idea of bicycles, leans yearningly toward her new tricycle whenever she sees it. We think she'll enjoy riding behind us in a trailer. Granted, we won't be doing any single track with MZ attached, but we'll be back on our bikes, and she'll be with us. Same same but different. And that's pretty damn fine.