Bicycle Rider Benjamin

 

 

I will be completely upfront and honest and say that I am not the pushiest mom around.  Nor do I expect my boys to reach certain milestones by a certain age.  Take potty training.  I really could have gotten both of them trained by the age of 2, but I didn’t want to push them.  So, I really let them do it on their own.  Thus it wasn’t until they were both at an advanced age of 3 and 1/2 that they were trained.  But, in my defense, they were trained for both day and night time.   I didn’t have to change many sheets.  And that is something for me because I dislike changing sheets.  Now take the example of bike riding.  I know that Benjamin could have been riding a bike without training wheels for over a year now…but once again, I was letting him decide when he wanted to ride a bike.  So, whenever we went for walks/rides, Benjamin would be riding this really small bike that was way, way, way too small for him, but it had the training wheels so we were good to go.  For Christmas this last year, Santa brought the boys (well, mainly Matthew) a coaster.  It is basically a bike, without the pedals and it helps with learning the whole balance thing.  Because we have been enjoying an unseasonably dry winter, Matthew was able to ride the coaster almost everyday since Christmas to pick Benjamin up from school.  While there, both boys would ride the coaster down a sloping pavement area.  Both are really good at it.  Sunday afternoon I talked Chad into going outside to try out my new bike (another story that I’ll share later).  The boys wanted to join us.  And of course, both wanted to ride the coaster.  Chad made the really small bike into a pseudo coaster, aka a bike, by taking the training wheels off.  Then we told Benjamin to act like it was a coaster.  And off he went.  He knew just what to do.  We were two very proud parents.  I jumped up immediately to get the camera.  So, these shots are not of his first pedaling, but there are pretty darn close.  Now he is riding like a pro.  And I think I know what he’ll be getting for his birthday this Friday!!!!

**Just so you know, I tried to upload a video, but my patience is shot with the uploading video process, so you get a picture.  I meant to get one of him riding towards me, but alas, that did not work out quite like I wanted it to.