Look Ma, No Hands!

TJ has been riding his bike without training wheels for 9 days now...and I am amazed! We were playing outside with chalk last weekend when TJ said, 'hey mom, let's take my training wheels off'! The funny part is, we didn't even have his bike out at that point. It must have been weighing on his mind. : ) So, I said we could try it if I could find the right tool. And yes, I found that tool. I spent the next hour holding the back of his shirt and trying, trying, trying. I let him go on a few at the end and he stayed up a few seconds before tipping. That kid did not give up. Tim took over when he got home and much progress was made after another hour. We took a break and then, BAM! He got it! His little wiggle made it so fun to watch from behind. To keep his balance, he would wiggle his little spine and we just laughed in pure awe.

The next day he was riding with less wiggle. By day 3, he was an old pro. Day 4, he wanted to ride from our house to the park. Reluctantly (to myself), I packed up a backpack and we ventured out. It was surreal! We rode down a huge hill into the park and he learned to stay on the right side. He loved the fact that we didn't have to stop at streets and be wary of driveways. It was a new kind of freedom. We rode nearly 4 miles and his strength in getting up the last hill blew my mind. (My quads were burning!)

Yesterday was my favorite day in a long time. Most days I feel like I say that, but yesterday was especially good. I've been really focusing on keeping my stresses quiet and separating work time with normal time. I'm not especially good at it yet but am seeing improvement. Anyhow, we took our time in the morning and then headed to the library on our bikes. We spent the morning reading and playing there and then went to the bakery for cookies. I always ride behind TJ, but he asked me to be the leader for awhile. Since we were about 100 yards from the bakery I figured it couldn't hurt. Ha. I heard a crash about ten seconds later and when I turned around, I saw TJ on the ground with bloody knees. He admitted that he let his hands go - something I've asked him not to do...for that very reason. Lesson learned. He cried and we walked our bikes to the door of the bakery. The ladies there LOVE little T, and gave him a bag of their famous cookies for free. Sweet.

Grabbing our bag of cookies, we walked our bikes across the street to eat on the bench. In the middle of the street, T fell over his bike right onto his freshly bloodied knees. Double ouch. I told him to run up to the curb and I picked up his bike and rolled mine along side. A kiss on the knee and a cookie for each hand, and TJ got better quickly. It must have been a sight for the people at the red light because two men rolled their driver's side windows down and said, "good job, mom!" as they drove by. I felt slightly taller at that moment. And then got back to real life. : )

Our trip wouldn't have been complete without a stop in to the army store. They know him there too - and he picked out 3 army men from the bucket by the counter. I made him pay for those and he was glad to do it. We rode our bikes home and ate a great lunch on our comfy patio. Then T played while I made work calls. More playtime after that and it was time to make dinner. Tim came home and we ate dinner then walked to the new school playground. What a sweet way to wrap up a great day! Together, as a family of 3.