Super Birthday Sunday

There were no big birthday surprises for me today, which is okay. Instead, we loaded our bikes and the bike trailer and headed to Constitution Trail in Bloomington, IL for an 11 mile bike ride. Yes, we are really enjoying our bikes and Lili seems to be enjoying her bike trailer. She has her own water bottle and we take some books, Elmo and anything else that may help keep her occupied. Typically she just sits back and enjoys the ride though.

Other than enjoyment, we are hoping that our bikes will help move us in a downward direction in weight and an upward direction in health. We are also working hard to prepare ourselves for a fundraiser in Wisconsin this September. It's called "Ride for Autism" sponsored by ANGEL, Inc. which is a non-profit organization that provides grants to pay for therapies & treatment for children with Autism. http://www.angelautismnetwork.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67:madison-spring-green&catid=34:current-events&Itemid=74

Assuming we have Ryan's current situation resolved before the 'ride' we will drive up to Wisconsin so Lili and I can participate in the 15 mile family ride while Dave participates in the 38 mile ride. We will not only be helping a great organization, but we'll also be working toward our health and fitness goals.

Anyway, back to our day. After our bike ride we went to lunch at one of my favorite places, Qdoba. Yes, I'm a cheap date :-) After lunch we headed to Barnes & Noble in search of some bike trail books. We didn't find them there, but Lili walked out with two new books.

Book 1 - "The Colors of Us" by Karen Katz is an awesome book which teaches children that there are many different shades of brown skin and all shades are beautiful. Karen uses wonderful descriptions such as "Carlos is a light cocoa brown. And Rosita's skin looks like butterscotch." Granted, a 2-year old isn't necessarily going to understand those descriptions or the message of the book, which was proven to me when I read, "Look at everyone's legs, Mom - all the different shades" and Lili proceeded to point and talk about the shoes on each pair of feet. LOL!!! I'm sure the fact that she owns more shoes than any child should has nothing to do with her interest in shoes :-) However, my goal at this point is to introduce her to as many different topics as possible and eventually she'll pick up on the true message of the books when she's older.

Book 2 - "I'm a Big Sister!" by Ronne Randall & Kristina Stephenson puts a positive spin on becoming a big sister. I've been trying to purchase books about becoming a big sister in an effort to help prepare Lili for her future job as a big sister. I'm guessing we have somewhere between 9 and 10 months to get her ready, so I'll be buying more books and having more and more conversations about Naomi and how Lili is going to be a big sister.

Now we're home for the day and pretty much taking it easy at this point. Lili and daddy decided to play a little guitar hero and Lili decided to really take it easy.

Biking, reading books and guitar hero can really wear a person out!