It’s a Good Memory

I've mentioned my daughter riding her bicycle a lot lately.   It's into fall but temperatures have been such that she can go outside after school and get in a few good hours biking before she has to come in.   On the weekend she typically spends some time each day biking.   Some of the time, when she hasn't run the battery down from talking to my mother and other family and friends who have agreed to share their number, she's outside going around the block or other distances further than just our eleven house length street.

My husband had an idea two days ago: how would she fare on her brother's bike that's larger, has hand brakes as well as gears?  She prefers his bicycle now, asking to bike as soon as she got home from school.   Her brother wasn't overly thrilled about it, but seeing as he hasn't been interested in biking, we've told him he could share.  Surprisingly, we got little pushback.

There was, of course, mt son's constant monitization of the situation, something he does with everything lately.   Phrases such as, "I'll do the dishes, but you have to give me fifty dollars."   There are a lot of things he believes are worth fifty dollars.  He has recieved exactly zero dollars from us, nor the promise of any dollars, but he continues to try.   He agreed to let his sister ride his bicycle but he yelled out, "if you scratch it, you have to pay me for the damage!"  This was shot down immediately by me explaining how he hadn't bought the bike in the first place to which he sighed and said, "okay, Mom."

My husband has been talking to my daughter about asking for a new bike for Christmas (which would be helpful, as we need something to get her).   She came in today after biking and talked to me about getting a new bike.   She said, "what will happen to my old bike?"   I explained we would have to find a new home for it to make room for the new bike.

She doesn't like to get rid of things.   She suggested putting it several different places, including the attic and basement and I explained how we had been cleaning out the attic recently and the basement, just tonight, was going to have to have even more things cleaned out and moved to the attic because dad is having Tesla Powerwalls installed tomorrow.

I talked to her about how we had to make way for new things by getting rid of old things sometimes and that that was part of life.   She sighed, relented and then said, "I'll miss it.  It's a good memory."   I told her I understood.

The Big Boy Update:  My husband picked my son up to get his hair cut before his Mystery History presentation on Thursday.   He was very talkative to the lady cutting his hair, asking her questions about Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell.   When he got home, he decided he wanted to learn how to ride a skateboard.   I came outside to see much less hair on his head as he slowly balanced on a coasting skateboard.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  This weekend at the VI gathering my daughter's Orientation and Mobility teacher talked to us about turning Airplane Mode on on her watch for their sessions.  The rule at school is that her watch must be in airplane mode while she's in school.   Her braillest turns it on for her when she arrives and we have an alarm set to vibrate on her wrist silently at the end of the day so she and her braillest will remember to turn airplane mode back off for her ride home.  Mr. Adam wanted to have her learn features she could take advantage of with the watch for her sessions.   Anything she can learn that will help her navigate or be safer is a good thing.