GratiTuesday - And He's Off!

It's been a long time coming.  

He hasn't wanted to ride his bike because the training wheels left him stuck on our uneven road, but he watched the older kids zooming up and down the street.

He desperately wanted to ride his big sister's scooter and used to 'steal' it every afternoon while she was in school.  He taught himself how to balance on it in a single afternoon at only three.

The big kid bike, though, was scarier.  Feet are not free to stop a fall.  Helmets must be worn.  More body parts are involved.  The uneven road did not cooperate.

Then he outgrew the old, small bike, and I got him a bigger, new one - one without training wheels.

He loved it.  He cried.  He didn't want to get rid of the old one.  He wanted to pass it down to his kids someday, he said, and besides, he could still ride it!

So ride it he did when friends came to play.  They rode the new bikes and he rode the old one - appearing in front of my soon after with a bolt in his hand.

"It fell off, Mommy," he said, looking excited at the thought of manly metal parts.  "What do I do?" 

"Take off the training wheel, I guess,"  I replied, to which he happily announced,

"I'll use the other one!"

For the rest of the day, he rode his too-small bike up and down the street, dodging and weaving among his friends, oblivious to the fact that he was balancing his bike perfectly on two largish wheels.

After dinner he showed his daddy how well he could ride with only one.  

I immediately wheeled out the new red bike and told him to hop on.  

"I can't do it, Mommy," he said, but I asked him to try.

We got his bottom settled on the tiny seat and his feet planted sturdily on the pedals, and suddenly ... 

"Let go, Mommy!  I can do it!"  he yelled back at me, taking off up the street.

And he's off.

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