Charlotte's New Bike

A brand new bike at Christmastime in Illinois doesn't make much sense, and her birthday in August seems so far away. So a beautiful spring day was the perfect chance for Charlotte to pick out her first "big girl" bike. 

Of course she chose a Frozen bike

 We went to Tipton Park where there is plenty of smooth trail to ride on. It took a few minutes for her to get her bearings, but she quickly got the hang of it!

We walked around the pond to one of the playgrounds (Charlotte insisted we go to the one that is "just the right size for Natalie"). Right as we got to the playground, Ben spotted a baby turtle on the path. He was showing Charlotte all of its different parts & warned her not to touch its head, since it might bite her. I got Natalie out of the stroller and let her have a good look. 

The turtle is the tiny dark spot in front of Nat

Natalie liked the turtle, saying "Look, Mimi! Turtle!!" She even shushed me and said "turtle night night." And then she did it. In one swift motion, Nat picked up the tiny turtle with her little hand. Ben and I kinda gasped and I think Ben grabbed Nat's hand to free the turtle. Nat dropped him right away, but not before Charlotte stood up, hopped backward, and let out the loudest, longest, blood-curdling scream I've ever heard. She was terrified that that teeny tiny turtle was going to chomp Natalie's whole paw off!! Of course the scream made Natalie cry, and then Charlotte was crying. Is it horrible that Ben and I laughed the whole thing off? The scream was amazing. Like, I'm surprised the neighbors didn't call 911 amazing. 

the scream aftermath

Aside from the turtle incident, I'd say the bike was a huge success! it did take us a little longer than expected to get it. Toys R Us wouldn't let us take the floor model, and we didn't want to wait the 24 hours for someone to build it, so Ben put it together while I took the kids to Sam's Club to pick up a few things and eat. Very short car naps, bike excitement, and dinner hunger made the Sam's Club trip just a little bit hairy. I even snapped a picture of "feeding time at the zoo."

That's Nat, climbing onto the table, begging for more bites of the fruit & yogurt parfait.