Riding Machine

Go Big Brother, Go!

Happy Fatherhood Friday!

After an entire summer of pretty much blowing off his bike, suddenly with the start of school, Big Brother suddenly had rejuvinated interest in mastering riding a bike with two wheels.

Little Brother and Bab-E Brother are also avid riders.  Little Brother has got the hang of riding a bike with training wheels.  Bab-E Brother has a Lightning McQueen trike that he powers Fred Flintstone-style with his feet.

Riding bikes at our house is pretty much like rush hour traffice on a busy interstate in the middle of a thunderstorm.  Our driveway slopes, making it not very friendly for someone learning to ride a two-wheeler.  That leaves 3 boys and 3 bikes to ride on a fairly narrow sidewalk leading to the front door.

(Translation: it's crowded, difficult to turn around, and everybody is frequently crashing into each other - often on purpose.)

So two nights ago after dinner we headed to a parking lot to give the boys more room to safely ride.

The result was amazing.

After two times of crashing pretty quickly after I let go, Big Brother just "got it."

Next thing you know, he's riding laps around the parking lot with relative ease.

Afterwards, we celebrated with slushies for everyone!

Last night we headed back for more biking.  This time he's riding even faster, and able to better control his brakes.

You can guess where we'll be again tonight.

He still has work to do.  He's a little more nervous - and hence wobbly with his steering - while riding in our neighborhood, but he's getting the hang of it.

But this major accomplishment so aptly summarizes much of child development.  It's not a linear process at all, but rather discrete with these quantum leaps.

This weekend he couldn't ride a two-wheeler.  This week he can.  Amazing.

In retrospect, I might've seen this coming.  Over the Christmas break, we did some riding.  Big Brother was able to ride about 10-20 yards before crashing, although turns weren't possible.

But it was clear during t-ball season that his coordination has really improved, and I suspect this translated to him being able to balance and ride the bike.

Needless to say, Mom-E and I are quite proud (and rightly so is Big Brother)!

Keep up the good riding, buddy!  We love you!

Have a good weekend,

Ride on,

Busy-Dad-E