Fall Routines

We've fallen into some nice routines.  On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays I go to the office, and Roan goes to Chai Tots.  We ride bikes there.  After we cross Prospect Park West we go down a hill, that gets steeper and steeper with each block.  I ride in the street and Roan rides on the sidewalk and we meet up at the intersections.  After crossing the street together we say, "see you at the intersection!" and Roan speeds away.  He coasts down the hills, his feet up on the part of the bike that would be the chain stay (if his bike had a chain).  He picks up some serious speed.  I lock my bike outside Chai Tots and ride the F train to work.

I'm used to riding my bike in the city, but riding with Roan introduces a new level of vigilance.  In addition to paying attention to traffic, swerving around double parked vehicles, and making sure I don't get doored, I must ride slightly ahead of Roan and clear all the driveways for him.  I'm getting better at it, learning the tricks and short cuts, so it doesn't take so much of my attention away from all the other details I need to keep in mind.

I'm not sure what we'll do when it gets too cold to ride, or  there's snow on the ground.  Both of us love this morning ride.  We chat about all sorts of things.  Lately Roan keeps asking why cars don't have 2 wheels like bikes and motorcycles do.  This question continues to vex him, despite all my explanations about weight and balance.

On Wednesday mornings I take Roan and Ilan to music class.  They both love it.  Ilan crawls all over the room, into other people's laps, attempts to climb over other children, pulls up to look out the window.  Roan sits in my lap or follows Ilan around, trying to keep him out of trouble.  In the afternoon we see friends, or meet up with big groups of neighbors at the park.

Fridays are for grocery shopping and cleaning up.  We buy challah and juice for Shabbat.  We almost always have dinner guests.  Lately I've been making thick soups that we can dip our bread in.  Ilan knows his way around these dinners - he yells for the bread and he yells for the juice and he'll eat nothing else.

On Saturday mornings I make French toast with the leftover challah. On Sundays Roan has a swimming lesson.  Sometimes we ride our bikes there, and sometimes we drive and the whole family comes.  After the lesson we go to Pinkberry for frozen yoghurt.  Roan and Jay share theirs with Ilan - I get a flavor that Ilan doesn't like so he leaves my bowl alone.

There's a comfort in these routines, in knowing what to expect.  Especially since we never know what to expect at night.  Ilan just got four new teeth and has been up every hour or two screaming about it.  So it's nice to have a loose pattern to follow, some shape to our days and weeks, so we know what we are doing even when we are too tired to think.

Welcome to a new week.