Bikes

As anyone who reads Chez Long knows, the kids are all pretty physical. They can jump, run, swim, climb better than the average kid their age. I take no credit for any of it and figure it's just who they are. Elizabeth rode without training wheels before 4 and Miranda just shortly after.  So when I got them the next size bike up at their past birthday, even though they had hand brakes and gears, I figured, no problem.  Boy was I wrong. They didn't like them and they don't ride them. Michael and I figured they just needed time to grow into them and get used to them, but every attempt at bike riding ends with tears from one or both girls and Michael carrying a bike home.

So I got thinking that the problem was the bikes and not the girls. Turns out they are not girls bikes and worse yet, they are mountain bikes, so the frame is different than other bikes we see kids riding.  I called the bike store and sounded like a crazy person explaining that I had two twin girls and not boys and they aren't riding their bikes and could we get different ones. I was passed off to two different people before I was told "someone will call you." Which of course hasn't happened.

Meanwhile, I poked around Craigslist for some girls' bikes and immediately found two for sale for $15 each in Vallejo. Vallejo ain't close but for $30 I would pay the gas to get what appeared to be perfectly perfect girls bikes. They had lower seats and higher handle bars and other girlie elements. But the same size as their current bikes.  After some back and forth, I arranged to get them from the seller's place of work in Alamo near Danville which much closer than Vallejo.  I took Eli with me and picked the fantastic and fantastically cheap bikes yesterday morning before any traffic started.  When we got home we went bike riding at the school and the girls were zooming around like the pros that they are. No problems, no complaints. In fact, Miranda exclaimed many times, "I love my bike!!!!"  I was very happy.