Eli loves beets

Healthy for him. Messy for me.

 

Sometimes the hipsters are right. buy your kid a balance bike.

So, about 2 years ago, I was standing at the playground talking to one of the Cool Moms I know. She was talking to me because none of her other Cool Mom friends were around - I'm definitely not usually hip, toned, well dressed or well travelled enough to make the cut. Anyway, a little guy zipped by on a kettler trike. "those kettler trikes are pretty neat", I mused. "I think I'll get one for Owen for his second birthday". "They are ok", said Cool Mom. "But what you really should do is get a balance bike. In Europe (side note: as far as I know she's from New Jersey and has never lived in Europe, but whatever) the children don't use trikes and they go right to riding regular 2 wheeler bikes without training wheels at age 3 or 4. They use balance bikes instead. I just bought one the other day".
Since Cool Mom's kid was, like mine, about 16 months old at the time, she didn't have the bike with her and I have to admit that I had no idea what a balance bike was. So I went home and googled it, and found the skuut website. I forwarded it to my mom. "this is what I think you should get Owen for his second birthday". I wrote. She was skeptical, and suggested she get a snazzy radio flyer trike. I persisted. "no, really. I heard that in Europe, they don't even use tricylces, they use these. And all the kids can ride a two wheeler bike at 3." She wrote back. "that is ridiculous. No 3 year old can ride a two wheeler bike. you didn't learn to ride one until you were 8." But I went ahead and got him the balance bike anyway - what can I say? I am susceptible as the next gal to Cool Moms, and a whiff of European sophistication. But I have to say, in this instance, whether Cool Mom has been to Europe or not, she was right. Behold, my barely 3 and a half year old cruising on a 2 wheeler like he's been riding all his life:

those Europeans and their balance bikes and socialized medicine. Always a couple steps ahead.

Hi Blog Readers. Who are you?

I get a little email with stats emailed to me every Tuesday. I can't remember when or how I signed up to make this happen but I assume that at the time I thought it would tell me somthing about who reads my blog. It actually doesn't really tell me very much, just the geographic location of where my blog is accessed from. What's interesting to me is that the few people who seem to regularly read my blog I honestly cannot figure out how I might know them. There is one person (hi, whoever you are!) who reads my blog every time I update it from Canada. I have thought and thought and simply don't know a single person in Canada. On the other extreme, my own parents and husband do not read this blog, so I'm somewhat amused that there are people that don't even know me reading my posts.

Anyway, all this just sort of randomly to say that although I'm under the impression that almost no one reads my blog (and I still think this is largely true - I'm wondering if a lot of the blog 'hits' I get are from web bots or some other not-real source) I actually get over 200 page views a week. Again, people who actually know me (with some exceptions) tend not to read my blog, so I have no idea who you guys are - but whatever, if you like visiting my blog, great! that leads me into my real reason for musing about blog traffic....

I haven't had the greatest luck driving donations through facebook (again, trying to hit up people I know) so I thought I'd give it a stab with people I don't know! Hey all you anonymous internet friends....I'm glad you're here. Now that you are here, please take a look at my cute pictures and unoriginal thoughts on being a parent and while you're at it, could you please donate some money to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society? I'm trying to reach my goal of raising $2000 by October 2nd for the mission and I'm 80% of the way to my goal. If all of the 200 people that stop by here in a week donated $20 I'd be there! Your gift goes directly to patient services and research, is tax-deductible, and I really hope you can find a few spare dollars to donate. I am participating in an event with team in training in october (a half marathon in maine) which is the impetus for me raising this money, but the race is neither here nor there - the important part is helping LLS reach their fundraising goals. You can donate here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ma/maine11/jcoxpa, and feel free to tell your friends!

If you don't feel like donating, but you do feel like introducting yourself, please do. especially my canadian friend. You've been with me since the beginning....here's your shout out. But a curious blogger wants to know...who are you? and will you make a donation to cancer research?