No more training wheels!

Today was a big day for Eli. He learned to ride his bike without any training wheels! For those of you who know my son you know that he is the cautious one. For those of you who don't know him, he is the one that watches everybody else first to see if they get hurt and then will decide if something is worth trying or not. He is also a perfectionist and likes to do things "right" the first time and is easily frustrated when he has trouble. Not really a good combination of characteristics when he is trying to learn something new.

So with all that in mind, this past winter we told Eli that the training wheels would be coming off in the spring. He was willing to try the bike a few weeks ago and just could not get it that first day. We decided to take the pedals off of his old toddler bike and make it into a "balance bike". He used that for about a week but wasn't enjoying it because he could not get it to go fast enough; so the bikes just stayed in the shed for about three weeks. Today we were outside playing and I told him we were going to practice on his bike. After a minute of him moaning and groaning about it he got on the bike, I gave him a little push and he just took off!

















He still needs help getting the bike started and he needs to learn to use the brakes instead of just putting his feet down, but all in all a great start. When he was all done riding he looked at me and said, "Mommy are you proud of me because I am proud of me!" I think he smiled the rest of the afternoon. And yes, I am a very proud Mommy.