He's Finally Done It

After Christmas, Gavin started talking about wanting to ride a 2-wheeler, but was basically too nervous about falling. For his birthday we got him a set of pads to ease his mind. Finally at the beginning of April, Caleb was home and we had few minutes on a Saturday morning to get him riding. He did great the first day and if we helped him start he would go up and down our half of the block. Then freakish weather set in and he didn't ride for a week or more. The next time I took him out he was worried about if he should wear his knee and elbow pads, but I didn't want to find them and told him he was riding well enough not to need them... My big mistake. 10 feet after he started he rode up a small hill in the neighbors yard, he had forgotten that he had to steer, and then dove off onto the sidewalk. The end result was a super skinned knee and a mean mom trying to make him ride again. It might have worked, but the moment he got a good look at the blood that started to run down his leg, he processed to scream his head off. Then had to go home and cry it out for 30 minutes. It was not pretty. Since he wouldn't ride again for a few weeks due to the skinned knee and the snow that we kept getting, by the time he agreed to ride again he also would only ride if "Dad is here to help me." It seemed to annoy him that I couldn't hold his bike up and chase him down the street in my pregnant state.

Finally, after all of this, and several practice sessions with Dad running along next to him for moral support. He has overcome all fear and scabbed over knees and is finally riding, and doing it all on his own. He even wants to be the one to strap on his pads and helmet when he rides. We have taken full advantage of the elementary school play area to ride many many laps in the last few days. He keeps wanting me to invite people out to see him as well. And I will not be the one to tell him when I think it is safe to leave his pads off to ride... I can't shoulder that kind of blame again.Hurray for perseverance.