So a few months ago Jason and I decided to try to make our lives a little greener. Since that time we have sold one of our cars (the gas guzzler)and bought bikes and a trailer, we are trying to use reusable grocery bags, and switched away from using bottled water everywhere we go. We found these cool Nalgene bottles (reusable plastic bottles)that have been awesome for us. The big problem with them has been that Daniel has been fascinated with them. He has almost perfected dumping huge amounts of water on his face while trying to drink from my bottle which is pretty impressive to watch. So today, we went up to REI to get some more biking stuff and saw that Nalgene makes a toddler water bottle. Imagine, I thought to myself, would I really add another sippy cup to Daniel's infinite collection? The answer was easy when I saw his reaction to the bottle I was holding in my hand, euphoria. He got to pick out his color bottle, he picked blue just like mine, and carried it up almost the whole way to the cash register like a big boy. Like many people he got distracted by the other side of the store as we entered the line. So now Daniel has his own little "green" cup, which really saves me from having to rescue my bottle from his little hands twenty times a day. As soon as we walked in the door he went right to the shopping bag and brought his bottle to me. How he even knows that stuff comes home in a bag is unbelievable. Kids are so observant. After two hours Daniel has drained the bottle which holds 12 oz. which is awesome since he usually takes all day to drink that much water.
About going green. I have read news articles saying that people are driving less and bike sales have skyrocketed this year. I have seen farmers markets exploding with people and tons of people that bike there and no one has a plastic bag in sight. But going green is really expensive up front. Buying a bike was not as easy at it seemed. Since we sold our SUV we had to buy a bike rack for the Subaru which decided to take off some of our letters so it looks like we drive a Subar. Then there were the helmets for all three of us, work out clothes, a bike pump, bike maintenance costs, the trailer for Daniel and all these other weird little things. Needless to say it was more expensive than just the bike itself. Yet aside from the fact that we are trying to help the environment, our family has already seen benefits of going green. Daniel loves going for bike rides tons more than he loves being stuck in the car. Jason and I have been helping local farmers and craftswomen by buying all sorts of stuff that we need and don't need at the farmers market. We are exercising more since we can do it together as a family. And our garden gave us the first ripe tomatoes of the summer. So even if my family driving less and using fewer plastic bags and bottles won't necessarily save the world, at least we have found things that we all like to enjoy doing together.
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