The Lee Family: A New Bike.....and mild concussion......

Sofia has recently become interested in her bike again and has been bugging me to go for a long bike ride with her. Finally, on Sunday afternoon we had decent enough weather that we could head out on a longer ride. Olivia absolutely loves riding in the bike trailer and usually falls asleep. As Sofia and I got ready filling our water bottles and changing our clothes, Olivia loaded up the bike trailer with her favorite stuffed animals and blue blanket. It's been raining a lot lately, so it was nice to have a cloudy day without rain, but it was still stuffy and in the high 80s. We headed out and rode to the bike path and took it to "hidden lakes" which is one of our favorite neighborhoods about a mile away. It has a beautiful pond and walking path which we rode to and then cut through to the bike path. Just as we arrived at the path the Grapevine train came by which the girls love to watch. We waved to everyone as they went by and then continued on our way up toward the caboose on display. I thought Sofia would want to stop at the caboose for a water break but she wanted to continue on to Starbucks. I'd suggested we visit Starbucks for a cool break and both girls were very excited. We continued on to Starbucks with Sofia's bike squeaking along as we went. We gave her bike to her for her birthday a few years ago and now it is too small for her and sounds like it's on it's last leg It also weighs a ton and is hard to pedal, especially up hills. She really needs a new bike and would enjoy biking even more when she can switch gears up hills on a more maneuverable bike.

At Starbucks, the girls had chocolate milks and s'more bars, while I had an iced tea. The s'more bars were delicious but a little too sweet for additional biking. The girls loved the break (and their sweet treats) and we were soon back on our bikes headed to City Park for a little play time. The girls played and had fun together before we got back on our bikes and road home. It was getting even hotter and more humid and looked like rain might be in our future, so I wanted to get home before we got caught in it. Both girls had a great time on the ride and Sofia really did a great job riding her clunky bike. She kept asking to go for "a really long ride" and I told her she would need a new bike before we headed out, but that once she had one we could bike to Grapevine for breakfast or lunch. I warned her that it would be a LONG ride and she would really need to be up for it for us to go. She said she's be fine. That evening I told CK about Sofia's bike and we decided to go to REI to get her a "real" bike on Memorial Day. When we told Sofia, she wanted to go right away.

After a lazy breakfast and spending time just hanging around the house, we got motivated to visit the REI in Fort Worth, since they had the bike model that we liked most in stock. The bike is a 24" Diamondback Clarity in dusty pink. We arrived and Sofia was able to take the bike outside to test it out so she could see how it feels and also learn how the bike shifts. She immediately loved it and couldn't believe how easy it was to shift and pedal! A real bike makes such a difference. She road it around the parking lot and would have probably tried to ride it home if we'd let her. She was so excited to have a new bike and we put it in the back of our SUV and headed home.

As soon as we got home Sofia wanted to take it "for a long bike ride" and CK offered to get his bike down and head out with her. They had their helmets and gloves on and were ready to go and wanted to zoom down the driveway and head toward the main road. Because of our landscaping you can't see if cars are coming from the main road, so I stood halfway down our driveway looking for cars. Just as I was ready to tell them to go, a woman rode by on her bike and I looked again and didn't see any cars so told them to go! However, I never thought that the woman was possibly riding with someone else and was only looking for cars. Just as they zoomed down the driveway, our neighbor Mitzi came around from the main road on her bike! I was actually filming CK and Sofia as they headed down the driveway and it all happened almost in slow motion. Sofia wasn't used to hand brakes and wasn't sure what to do. She swerved as much as she could and ended up hitting the bike tire of Mitzi's bike! Sofia's bike hit and she went flying. I threw my iPhone down on the grass and ran over to Sofia. Luckily, Mitzi didn't fall and was absolutely fine since she's had her share of crashes and injuries over the past few years. Sofia got up and kept saying "I'm sorry ma'am. I'm really sorry, ma'am. I'm fine." She seemed really rattled and didn't cry right away. She also wasn't very scrapped up with just a scrape on her elbow. She then ran inside and started crying while she took her helmet and my gloves off and said she "never wanted to ride again." We finally convinced her to ride a time or two around the neighborhood with CK before CK headed out for a ride and the girls and I went to Marco and Stacy's house to swim and have dinner. CK joined us a little later and we were concerned when Sofia seemed uninterested in swimming and then complained of a headache. Marco checked her out and thought she might have a mild concussion but should be fine.

The next morning Sofia woke me up at 6am complaining of a terrible headache and ended up throwing up shortly after. We had her lay on the couch and drink water slowly while eating saltines when she started getting hungry. She still had a bad headache but I didn't want her to be sick again on Advil. After she threw up again I called Marco and he suggested we take her to his Emergency Room/Urgent Care facility to get her checked out. The doctor who ended up checking her out felt that Sofia had a mild concussion but that she wouldn't need a CT scan. He suggested two weeks off of any activity that could lead to another head injury as well as a lot of rest. Thankfully after we left she wasn't sick again and was able to eat some macaroni and cheese and Advil and started feeling a lot better. She was really tired and we put her to bed early which she welcomed. Poor girl. Thankfully, she's still excited about her new bike and can't wait to get back and go for a long ride.

Ready for our ride on Sunday afternoon.