Eliot's Chariot

I am so beyond excited that it is kind of ridiculous.  Chris pitched the idea of getting Eliot one of those baby bike chairs that attach behind the parent's seat.  Well, sure, sounds cool.  I had been wanting to get him a trailer that you pull behind the bike, but I thought that maybe this would be a cheaper alternative.  Also, I wasn't sure about how the trailers attached, if they were easy to break down, if it'd be better to wait and get a double one eventually, all of that.

We headed to the local bike shop and asked them.  They didn't have any of the chairs, but they showed us the trailers.  As it turned out, they had one for just $50 more than the chair Chris was originally looking at.  And it was a double trailer.  Even better... it also works as a double jog stroller.  OK now, I am kind of ridiculous when it comes to strollers.  I love them.  Years before we had Eliot, I had picked out the jogger that I wanted to get.  When I see a baby or kid in a stroller, I'm more likely to "aw" at the stroller before the baby.  We don't use regular strollers much (we have a hand-me-down umbrella stroller; we have a $30 cart thing that our infant carseat attached to and worked great, especially in Disney World; and I usually carried Eliot in a sling before he could sit in shopping carts), but we have used the heck out of our jogger.  And Eliot loves it.  As weird as this is, I have had my heart out for a double jogger someday for when we'd need it.  I saw a super deal on Zulily for a double jogger and considered buying it.  But I didn't.  And that makes sense.

Anyway, with this "chariot" doubling as a double jogger, I was stoked.  Of course, I won't be taking it to the mall or anything, but it will be excellent for the places that we already use our current jogger (around the neighborhood, up and down Rivermont Ave, and the park).  Someday Eliot will get over the jogger, but I like to think that we have a while and that being pushed fast through the woods in a jogger is a little different than a walking kid being confined to a stroller in the mall.  But, anyway, he should enjoy riding behind our bikes for quite a few years.

With the weather growing cooler, we worried that our running season was coming to a close for Eliot's sake.  His chariot, though, comes with a weather shield.  Hurray!

I was concerned that Eliot would be afraid of it.  He didn't like the jogger for about six months.  However, as soon as we brought it inside, he played with the wheels and then crawled right inside.  He loves it!  And tomorrow we will go for a Christmas Eve bike ride.