This past weekend was an awesome adventure in parenting.
On Friday morning Ethan was talking about wanting a bigger bike and one without training wheels. So I called a few places but decided that $160 for a new 16" bike was excessive. So I checked with Recycled Cycles and they had one used boys 16" bike for $40. I said perfect and told Karri that I would pick it up on the way home. When I got to the store, which took forever because it is in the U District, they had sold it - I should have had them hold it. When I got home without a bike, Ethan was pretty upset, but we span it that we would go to the Goodwill and let him pick his own. This worked like a charm and he was happy. Meanwhile, I had picked up a new inner tube for his 12" bike, but of course had not picked up the tool necessary to get the tube on.
Saturday came and Karri took Willa to Little Gym, which she loves. While they were doing that, Ethan and I went to the Goodwill. Not a big selection of 16" bikes - basically 3 - two were clearly girls bikes. We got the least girly bike they had. Brought it home, pumped up the tires, cleaned it a little, and lubed it up with WD-40. $7. Ethan then rode it a bit in front of the house with me pushing from the seat or holding the handlebars. Once he was on his own for about 4 feet before crashing into a rock. Oops.
Dad came up later in the afternoon and we had lunch. Then, while Willa was napping, I went out and got the tool to fix the 12" tire - good as new now (so we sent the other 12" bike down to Gig Harbor for Micah). Ethan and Dad were entranced by They Might Be Giants' new kids videos and songs, so I had plenty of time. While Willa was still napping, Dad pushed Ethan to Coe on his new bike. Then, when Willa woke up, we came up on her new'ish bike - inflatable tires roll much better than the solid foam ones.
When we got there Dad was exhausted - and understandably so after pushing a 16" bike with a rider for a half mile. So, it was my turn to push Ethan. This is where it gets good. Ethan quickly got the hang of peddling and steering. So much so that it was hard to keep pushing him and he would get away from me. However, he would look back occasionally to see if I was still holding o, which made him very wobbly. After a short discussion about looking where he was going it happened, he rode on his own for a few feet, then fell. The next time though, he had clearly found his balance point and was riding a two-wheeler on-his-own, no training wheels. WOW!
I think we were all a little surprised at how quickly it all happened for him. But it was awesome. Attached are some pictures of that magic moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment