Minivan

Who needs one? Not us.  At least not yet.  We somehow managed to squeeze three car seats into the back of the Nissan.  Made possible by upgrading Ben to a booster seat and buying a seat belt extender so it is possible for him to buckle his seat belt without having to dig between the car seats.  Also, this is our version of a minivan:

We are still biking most places with three kids.  Ben or Penny rides in the rear-mounted child seat on the bike and the other two ride in the trailer.  You can’t really see my bike because I was taking the picture by myself and I couldn’t let go of my bike because it is not super stable with Penny on the back.  My kickstand is not up to that challenge.  We may have learned that the hard way when Penny dropped her water bottle and I went back to get it.  The bike fell, Penny got a little scraped up and is now kind of afraid of the “blue seat”.  At least she and Ben don’t fight over who gets to use it as much anymore.

So here’s the set up in the trailer.  Ian has a little sling that keeps him nice and snug. This was when he was two weeks.  He seems to like it, even from day one.  He can be screaming bloody murder but stops as soon as we start going.

Penny and I went down the street to Subway one time when Geri was here. Penny enjoyed the rain.

It was, however been pretty hot here this summer, so temperature regulation has been an issue.  I made some little things called cool ties to wrap around the kids necks.  They are soaked in water and refrigerated and they really help cool things down.  Here are Ben and Penny wearing theirs:

And Ian with his:

When it’s really hot, I stick ice packs around Ian, wrapped in a light blanket.

When we go out with the whole family, there is an extra hitch so Jon can pull the trailer and I take Ben in the seat:

In preparation for cold weather, I have been shopping online sales for some good cold weather gear for the whole family.  I figure we will try to bike as much as we can, although I probably will avoid riding when there is snow on the ground.  I tracked down some snowboard helmets that are also rated for use on bikes and got some goggles for the kids to wear (I only got one kid helmet for whichever kid is in the blue seat, it adjusts to fit both kiddos).  It keeps the ears nice and warm and holds the goggles in place.  Penny insisted on trying out all of her new gear, even though it was in the high fifties.  A little overkill, but still a hoot:

Everyone says she looks like an anime character, which I guess is pretty accurate.  The pink balaclava (or ninja mask as my kids call them) actually came with the nice winter coat I got for Penny.  Ian has a couple of really nice buntings and both kids have good winter coats.  We will see how it goes.  We have faced off against some cold weather the last two weeks pretty successfully.

I know I am woefully behind on updating the blog and I am sure people will be mad that I finally update without current pictures of the littlest one, my goal today is to do some marathon blogging to catch people up on Ian and everything else.  Wish me luck, hopefully the kids cooperate.