there's no stopping her now....

The Babe learned to ride her bike with no training wheels today. Phew! Can I just say a few things about this? (answer: yes Erika, it's your blog... say whatever you like). Thank you.

#1 - This has been a long time coming. The Babe is 5 and a half years old. She has been asking to learn all this season. We tried in the spring, but she got easily frustrated and discouraged. She went about a month without getting on her bike at all.

#2 - Kids are mean. It's been a few weeks now that some of the kids on the block have been making comments about the fact that The Babe still had her training wheels. Granted, two little girls on the block who are younger than The Babe no longer needed their trainers, but those girls also have older siblings; and we all know how much more quickly the subsequent kids pick up on things. But, I think that distinction was lost on The Babe, and she had really been feeling low, talking about how so-and-so had hurt her feelings, etc. Nothing like a little peer pressure, eh?

#3 - The Babe has been DYING to learn since we got back from Disney. In fact, she was talking about it on the plane ride home so much that we stopped at the bike store on the way home from the airport to buy the pole attachment for Daddy to help her balance.

#4 - Mommy simply would not do. Even though Daddy had a busy work schedule all week, The Babe insisted that it was he that helped her with this. I offered several times, especially during the week as the other kids kept up with their comments, but The Babe preferred to wait all week because she wanted it to be Daddy who helped. She was very patient.

#5 - Today was the perfect day. Not only was the weather great for it, not too hot, not too cold... but the mean kids weren't out. One family went away for the weekend, and the other family had visiting relatives and were otherwise occupied. We had the whole cul-de-sac to ourselves with no one else out looking over our shoulders, making comments, or making The Babe self-conscious.

#6 - Daddy is a very good daddy. They had set today aside for the event, and she has learned. She's a pro.

#7 - The Babe is braver than I thought. After she had learned, pretty much without incident, and was riding on her own, she had two crashes. The first crash happened because our 2 year old neighbor wandered into the street and she had to swerve suddenly to avoid him. I was proud of her, and told her if there ever was a good reason to fall, avoiding a child was up there on the list. The second time I think she just wiped out for no reason, and she got pretty scraped up. She cried a lot, but I was so proud that she got back on the bike and kept on trying.

That's my girl! I am so proud of her. She kept at it, through the frustration, and she was mostly smiles about it all day. She did really well, and she earned a new bike that she can use for a few seasons. The toddler bike has been put away... The Babe is so big... *sigh*