From the second Liv was born I have loved taking her places to experience everything and anything. Even the simplest things were something I wanted her to experience. I took Liv to a local firetruck parade when she was barely one and I cried because I was so happy that she was there to see all of the trucks (that she cared nothing about) and I even ran out into the street to collect candy for her before all of the other kids got to it first. “Outta my way! My baby needs candy!”
With all of this excitement over Liv trying new things you would think that we would have had her on a two wheeler bike by the time she was eighteen months old. Nope. When Liv was three or four years old I bought her a girly butterfly bike that had training wheels on it and she loved riding it around everywhere. We had a bike for Holden, too, that was a very boy-ish black and green, but he preferred the butterfly bike because it was faster. (That missing shame gene is from my side.)
Liv was out riding her bike with our neighbors and there was a little four year old girl riding her two wheeler with no training wheels. Five year old Liv was not about to be out done by a four year old. She had Daddy remove her training wheels and start teaching her how to ride her two wheeler. Gary was an awesome teacher! He was so patient with her and helped her until she got it.
During all of her practicing she popped the tire on her bike so she had to switch to Holden’s bike. Holden wasn’t riding it because he had insisted that Daddy remove his training wheels when he took off Liv’s and then he realized that riding a two wheeler is harder than it looks.
I was very pregnant with Isobel when all of this was taking place so you can imagine how “helpful” I was when they needed assistance. Basically I was NOT running behind them steadying the bike as they rode. I was more of the sit in a lawnchair and cheer between tinkle breaks kind of help.
Since Daddy was at work and I was basically out of commission, Holden took it upon himself to teach himself how to ride a bike without training wheels. He wanted to ride his bike so very badly, but he had a hard time keeping it steady. His legs reached the ground so he pushed himself and practiced gliding steady until he could get his feet on the pedals. And he was off. There was no turning back for Holden. The minute he learned how to ride a bike, the biggest challenge has been getting him off of it. He loves to ride and even though he looks like the most unsteady rider EVER he rarely crashes.
So, Liv was five years old when Gary taught her how to ride a bike and Holden was three years old when he taught himself how to ride a bike. I don’t know what it says about us and our parenting skills (or lack thereof), but I have no two-wheeler expectaions for Gray-bee. We will just see what happens.
They look so cute on their bikes all decked out in their helmets!