One of my favorite parts of biking with Gabriel in the IBert front seat is having him right there in between my arms, making for easy, constant interaction as we travel, both pointing out interesting sights to one another.
For the past ten months (since we first started using the seat), I’ve been chanting, “Go, Mama, go!” as we ride uphill, in an attempt to get him to pick up the chant and provide some motivation when my energy is flagging. Little did I know that I would have a late talker on my hands.
The months passed, and aside from increased babble, we had nothing. Around the nineteen-month mark, he said, “Gogogo!” while sledding, one of his first words. I had to wait a couple more months for “Mama,” but my name is now a consistent part of his very small vocabulary.
Today as we biked to church, I helped him put the two words together, and, with a bit of prompting, he developed his own version of “Go, Mama, go!”
“Gogogo . . . Mamamama!” often followed by ringing the bike bell. He can’t help pedal yet, but he might make a pretty decent cheerleader!
Oh, and another cool part of the ride — we spotted another cycling family. A mom and her two girls, one daughter on a trail-a-bike and the other on her own bike, riding on Tower Grove Avenue, using lane positioning that indicated they were savvy cyclists.
While the number of families that use bicycles for transportation in St. Louis is growing, at this point it’s still a rare enough sight to be cause for excitement. We exchanged waves and bell rings as we continued on our way.
Her Green Life 