Babies go for a ride

Tonight, Flybaby went on his first bike ride! JP and I strapped him into the new Wee Ride seat, which sits in front of me on my bike instead of behind me like most baby bike seats. I liked it for the most part -- the only downside I can see so far is I have to ride frog-style, with my knees out to the side. JP thinks maybe he can move the seat forward if he drills another hole in the seat's bar. I think Flybaby liked it too. JP pedaled along with me on his bike, taking in the cool twilight of our neighborhood.

Just a few blocks from home, we rounded a corner, and I heard a baby crying. I thought I was hearing the baby crying from inside a home with a window open. But then I realized the baby was in a car in a driveway. The windows were down and the driver door was open. Except there wasn't a driver. There didn't appear to be any other person near that car at all. It sounded like a young baby, crying for all he or she was worth, and there was no one around.

JP assured me someone would come right back outside. After pedaling a few houses down, though, I stopped on the street and waited. JP waited with me. Flybaby looked around and listened. I glanced back at the car. JP looked at his watch. The baby was still crying. I asked JP if he thought we should go up to the house to make sure everyone was OK -- I imagined something terrible like maybe the mother had passed out, slumped over the wheel, and nobody knew. But we waited. We waited long enough to have been able to take the baby out of the seat and pedal back home with him or her. Finally, we heard the car door shut, the engine start up, and the crying muted as the windows were rolled up. The car drove right past us, then turned left and on into the evening with the lonesome baby inside.