Fast forward to the other day when I saw a bike for sale from some local person for $10. Talia used her birthday money and purchased the pink wonder. I told her she could get training wheels, but suggested that if she really wanted to learn to ride, training wheels would just set her back. I hate that the training wheels are always making kids lean to the side! She agree reluctantly. When we first tried, she was terrified, which made me regret the pep talk about the ability to learn without the training wheels. But she persisted mainly because I told her that she could either try to learn or forget about it and on ride her scooter. A few minutes later we had this:
She rode around for hours. Everyday she can't wait to get out to ride. Another funny aside which made me feel kind of good was that her friends came to ask me to teach them how to ride their bikes. To be fair, the whole learning to ride the bike is totally up to the kid. I think the parent is just there to pick up the kid and encourage them to figure it out. I found out that Talia had been watching the friend's mom try to teach her when Talia interrupted with "you really should have my mom teach you. She is the best teacher." So even though I didn't get to teach my two oldest, at least I had the chance to do the whole stereotypical bike learning moment with a neighbor's kid. I even ran down the block with her yelling "your doing it! That's all you!" Good work out. Great feeling.
