Growing Pains

 I am SO not as young as I used to be. My body reminds me of this from time to time. Evan is also not as young as he used to be. My baby is growing up.

Yesterday was proof of both of these.

We HAD to take advantage of a blue sky, no rain day, so we went on a bike ride by the river. There were so many things that could have gone wrong on the ride, but didn’t. That in itself is blog-worthy.

Going bike-riding with Evan is always a patience-trying adventure. Don’t get me wrong, I am SUPER proud of him for learning to trail ride a 2 wheeler at 3 years old. He’s really awesome at it.

But only when he WANTS to be. And that’s where the problem lies.

He is capable of going really fast and keeping up with the rest of the family. He showed us this last night. Two blocks into our ride, he caught sight of a girl his age standing in her front yard. Evan pressed the imaginary “rocket” button on his bike and started speeding forward, while staring intently at the girl with a “look what I can do, sweetheart” grin on his face.

You know what’s coming, right? He’s not watching forward at all, so bails and ends up crying on the street in view of the little girl.  

Not a successful first attempt at showing off for the girls, my son.

He suffered a scrape on the back of his heel from his pedal. After his cry, he sucked it up, puffed out his chest, reassembled his 4-year-old pride and kept going.

I think one reason I get so frustrated with him when we ride is because of our differing personalities. I like to go fast. Evan however, doesn’t care if he ever GETS to the destination. For him, it’s all about the journey.

There were many, many stops along the way. Some were for actually interesting things, like fuzzy caterpillars, but most were to scratch his head. Note to self: must check helmet for fleas.

We had a 10 minute break at a boat launch so Evan could rest his tired legs. So he got off his bike and stared somersaulting and rolling down a grassy hill, jumping off concrete walls, and using up all the energy he said he didn’t have to begin with.

There’s a fun spot at the boat launch I like to ride on. It’s a very steep downhill for maybe 6 meters, then comes back up again. If you go fast enough, you coast back up the other side. I did it over and over while I waited for Colin and Evan to show up.

When it was time to leave, Evan asked if he could go down the hill. Um, no. Sorry, but you’ll have to wait a few years. Nathan’s never even done it, and he doesn’t have a good track record for hills (another post, another time). Getting a bloody kid home from this spot would be very difficult. Plus, if you neglect to make the turn at the bottom, you will end up in a river.

Nathan called Evan a baby because he can’t go down the hill. Evan must have taken that as a double-dog-dare, because he turns around and sails down the hill! His front tire wobbles, but he maintains control and has enough speed to coast back up the hill!

He’s trying to show up his big brother, and he did a great job at it! I was sort of proud and horrified at the same time.

Then Nathan gave it a try and also did not injure himself. My boys are growing up, sniff.

Several minutes and head scratches later, we were back at the trail head, and saw 2 bears. The boys get super scared, or maybe excited? I’m not sure, as they just dropped their bikes and ran down a hill to their dad, leaving me to walk my bike and both of theirs simultaneously down a steep gravel path.

“It’s all right, guys. No one come and help me. I’ll nurse the bruises and cuts these bikes dangling from my arms are causing me when I get home”.

We saw 2 more bears before we’d ridden another block. I’m praying Evan won’t have an itchy head for the next minute or two…

We stopped at a playground on the way home. This is the part where I realize I’m getting old.

One awesome thing about Colin as a dad is that he jumps right in there and plays with the kids. He’s hanging onto those spinning wheel-monkey-bar-things that didn’t exist when we were kids. After spinning on it a few times, he got off and admired to quality of the bearings (there’s an engineer for you).

Last time I tried that, my shoulder hurt for a week. No way I’m trying that again.

Then I see it… a chin up bar!

If you were an elementary school girl in the ‘80’s, you know what I’m talking about. We didn’t actually use them for chin ups. No, we climbed on top of the bar, and with one knee on it, we spent hours upon hours, spinning around and around and around until blisters had formed and broken on our hands (and behind our knees if we wore shorts). Recess and lunch were competitions as to who could spin the most times without vomiting!

Come on ladies, can I hear a, “That was choice!!”?

I told Colin about this ‘80’s trend and start thinking, “I bet I can still do it”. He must have read my face because he insinuated that I probably can’t do it now. This is the equivalent of a “triple-dog-dare” in our relationship, so I MUST do it. One spin around? How hard could it be?

As I approached the bar, it seems to get higher and higher. Truth be told, I didn’t think I could actually get up on the bar let alone spin around it.

I grabbed with both hands and swung my knee onto it with about the same gracefulness as a drunk monkey.

Next, hanging upside down, I had to remember how I got right side up on the thing. I swung to get momentum and after a few tries, I heaved myself up onto the top! Everest conquered!

Time to show off my rad stunt. I swung around that bar like an 8-year-old gymnast! But when I tried to stop at the top, I fell sideways and landed with my armpit and ankle on the bar.

The dismount was equally as graceful as the mount, but at least I landed on my feet. I did not get injured. Tubular!

This morning, my leg was hurting every time I bent it. I thought it was due to the workout DVD me and Nathan did last night until I looked at the back of my knee. There’s a big red “burn” with a line of broken dark red blood vessels across it. Seriously? I can do a Jillian Michaels DVD but can’t handle one swing around a chin up bar?

Getting old is a double edged sword. Sometimes it can be really awesome, but sometimes it just plain hurts. Right, Evan?