Summer Daze

Today, Olivia rode her bike for the first time. Really, truly rode her bike. After months of refusing to even touch the bike, she got on the bike and patiently pedaled it down and up the sidewalk. Go figure. My drama queen is cool as a cucumber on her bike. She smiles beautifically up at me and says, "aren't you proud of me, mommy?" And then, "I think I'll walk my bike for this part." and my favorite, "My crown doesn't fit under my helmet, so will you wear it for me, mommy?" She pedals carefully where she wants to go, every so often honking her horn without stopping or looking around, just honking while she pedals. She says, "I honk my horn for trucks and ring my bell for cars. Look, that one's a truck, so I'm honking my horn." It's cute, hilarious, and unbelievable. I told her that we were going to celebrate "Olivia riding her bike" day by going to ice cream. I walked and Eliana and Olivia rode their bikes. Eliana was so busy riding in circles telling us, "I took the long way through the college and I still beat you!" that she kept running into things and crashing her bike because she wasn't paying attention to where she was going. I think she crashed three times on the way to the ice cream parlor.

I had also told the kids we could play at the park. The problem being that Olivia rides VERY slowly. It took a lot longer to get there than I anticipated. So my kids were playing at the park at 8 p.m. They were the only kids at the park. Corbin was certainly the only one playing in the fountain at 8 o'clock at night.

I'm also putting together an art show with my friend Prindi. It's tomorrow night, and I'm very excited. I think it's going to be great! I'm displaying my stick art. The kids will be singing "I had a little turtle" ... I think they'll probably steal the show.

On ANOTHER positive note, I just finished a ten-day detox, including one juice fast day. I lost 7 pounds and counting ... and with my new glasses and bangs, I've had two people tell me that they didn't even recognize me. The totally weird thing is that a lot of my normal "fav's" taste and sound discusting ... ice cream, chocolate, coffee ... I think I'm going crazy. It's actually probably the healthiest my body has been in a while, but it still feels weird. Someone offered me coffee at a meeting, and after my first sip I almost gagged. Too weird. There's something therapeutic about drinking coffee, and I can't see anything else really filling that gap. I'm not a big herbal tea person, and I'm not sure black tea would be any different. I guess maybe I'll jump on the jamba juice wagon! BTW, have you heard of the new "hot smoothie"?? It sounds gross to me, but supposedly it's good. sure. right.

On the way home from the park today, I realized that for the first time, it actually felt like summer to me. The "do-fun-things-with-the-kids-just-because-its-summer" thing. It was good. Really good. I hope I keep feeling this way for a long time. Too bad it took me a month and a half to get here.