The Easter Bunny brought Ellen a balance bike about 18 months ago that has pretty much sat in our garage ever since. Ellen is not a super adventurous kid and we also didn't make a big push to get her riding it. Fast forward to a few weekends ago and our good friends came over for Friday night pizza with their kids and, in particular, their very athletic almost-4-year-old son. He got the balance bike out of the garage and buzzed all over the driveway with it, then followed-up on his own big bike without training wheels. Whoa.
Surprise, surprise ... the next day Ellen asked to get her bike out and practice. She tooled around a little, then practiced a little more on Sunday with my Mom and Erik on one of the driveways up the street that had a good slope to it. I was encouraging her to go to the top of our street and ride down the sidewalk - it is a nice gradual hill - and we watched a few videos of kids online to get the running / two-foot technique down. She was a bit hesitant and I pushed her a little, but on Wednesday - THIS:
I am now a TOTAL believer in the balance bike thing. It was kind of amazing, actually - it just took a little peer pressure and minimal involvement on our part and she was doing it. Granted, I don't think she was ready until now, but she totally did it!
I have to say that this was one of the more awesome parenting moments so far. To see your child accomplish such a big thing AND have them be old enough to appreciate it is just amazing. I told Ellen that I thought it was really cool that she could ride a bike, but I was SO PROUD of her for practicing and sticking with it even when she got a little scared and frustrated. She did that sheepish huge-grin-turn-away-kick-your-feet thing and said, "thanks, Mom". I almost burst.
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2 comments:
I feel like I was there at the beginning too! so proud of all of you. It's really true ... when they're ready, it will happen easily.
Happened just about exactly the same way with Dylan. Bought his for his birthday and he wouldn't get near it for about 9 months. Then when his younger cousin showed interest, he tried it and had the hang of it immediately. Now he even rides it at our frmer's market outings every Saturday, despite the hordes of people. I suppose we might look into a proper bicycle for Easter. (A tip: over here they recommend that kids who've been on balance bikes skip the training wheels and go directly to proper bikes with pedals and no safety net.)
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