After spending most of the day in calls, I put Destroyer on the back of my bike and made La Serpiente ride with me to the cliffs again.
This time I packed snacks, so after just under two miles I fed them energy bars and fruit leather. Or was that leathery fruit? Then we rode home, taking the long way round, past the cafe I always used to stop at with Destroyer when I took her to school, and arriving back having ridden almost four and a half miles. There are lots of short, sharp hills and La Serpiente rode up all of them without complaint, apart from one surprise one where she had to get off and rest for a moment before carrying on.
So that was good. It didn’t rain, we avoided other human beings, and gave my wife a break of an hour or so to do normal human things in the house without the children squealing and squalling.
Of course, it then seemed to take forever to persuade the girls to sleep tonight. Gone are the days when I could get both girls to go to sleep without my wife’s help. Also, alas, gone are the days when Destroyer felt I was an acceptable substitute for her mother.
But her mother can’t propel her around town on a bicycle. Perhaps I should tell her that…