12 Miles---Makes That 16

This post is just a brag about our beautiful boy who, with his ever-loving dad, did 12 miles on his bike Saturday morning. Charlie and Jim have several routes, the new "urban" one (because it goes through the small center of our town), one that brings them by that bagel store, and another that was the favored route o' the summer (and involving long stretches on fairly busy roads and over a little two-lane bridge). Saturday morning Charlie and Jim did a conglomerate of all three for a total of twelve miles.

And then they did another, four or so mile, ride in the mid-afternoon.

Inbetween we went to Jersey City to get the new license plates for the white car. And then, after bike ride #2, we did something we haven't done in ages and ages: We went to visit some friends, had dinner and a lot of excellent conversation, and just a lovely good time. (Many thanks!)

Charlie was, as expected, very hesitant to go into a house he'd never been in. (He had met our friends before, but in a totally different location, and Charlie has long had a lot of uncertainty about going into houses he's never visited before). Our friends were more than accommodating, down to preparing summer rolls and chow fun ("brown noodles") for Charlie, and purchasing a watermelon (which they sent us home with). Charlie initially said "no" to going into our friends' house and hung around the driveway. Gradually he made his way to the back of our friends' house. He sampled a summer roll and then alternated coming in and standing and looking around going back on and coming in. Jim and I and our friends checked on him. At the end, Charlie settled back into the back seat of our car where he very contentedly had a plate of chow fun (minus the bok choy) and poked at some ice cream. 

At home, he asked me to bring his Disney CD and the CD player ("musics") into his bedroom and listened to it all the way to the final songs ("Bella Notte" and "When You Wish Upon a Star," fittingly enough).

New plates, a new ID: Somehow it seems kind of fitting these days, to have a fresh start for Charlie; for us all.

Comments

[Jen]

Wow...that's so great that you were able to go for dinner with friends, and wonderful that they went out of their way to accommodate Charlie, and be okay with him wanting to eat in the car. Having people like that in our lives make things so much easier.

And way to go Charlie!

[Shannon]

Oh wow. WOW. A huge, positive step! So happy for you all.

[Emily]

You need a "like" button. I like this post.

[karen d]

Keep on bragging! Woo!

[Kristina Chew]

I like bragging. Ahem!