10-4

When Quinn first learned to ride his bike, he was content to ride in front of our house and down to the corner, where I could see him the whole time. Now that he's a pro, he wants to go farther and faster. He's now started going around the block, and obviously I cannot see him the whole time. First we let him go with Dylan, a neighbor who is about 14 and knows a lot of people in the neighborhood. Then he started wanting to see if his friend Emma could play, and now they ride together sometimes alone and sometimes with her older brother (he's in 3rd grade). The latest is that they play in the neighborhood "park", and I put that in quotes because I would hardly call it a park. It's about 50'x100' and has a small basketball court and a couple of little bouncy animals to ride on. But they like to hang out there, and it's way in the far corner of our neighborhood at probably the farthest distance from our house. Let me also explain that our street is a loop, and once Quinn heads further into the neighborhood, he can't get out without passing back by our house. Nevertheless, I worry and I've had to ride over to the park a couple of times already (and it's not even really warm every day yet) and get him to come back home. So I've been telling James that we need a set of walkie talkies, which will also come in handy when we camp.

This weekend we got our REI dividend, and we went over there on Saturday because it was burning a hole in our pockets :) What we found was a set of (mostly free) two way radios that work up to 10 miles away, and they will be the perfect solution to Quinn's new found independence. We tested them out yesterday...he rode around and James buzzed him every couple of minutes and then we tested it from the park and it worked great! So now I can rest a little easier knowing that I can give him a ring whenever I need to talk to him or tell him it's time to come home for dinner :)