she had tried to ride a big girl bike-aka "a bike without training wheels" earlier this year- early spring. she was pretty decent at it but a few minor but scary incidents caused her to back away. she was distracted with other things all summer so we didn't think about biking. tuesday she asked me to "fix" her bike. one of the training wheels was pushed too high. i grabbed a wrench and started to loosen it and she said "mom, i don't need those." i asked if she was sure and she said, "yeah, can we take them off?"
so i took them off. she had only a couple tries up on the "big girl bike" tuesday when she decided to call it a day. i wasn't disappointed. she had tried hard- and to be honest- teaching a kid to ride a bike when you are 30 weeks pregnant is...umm...yeah.
we didn't bike wednesday.
but yesterday she requested another try. after some practice in a neighbors flat driveway(she was already learning to turn!!!) we headed to the street. this is her first real ride on the street...
GO GET'EM!!!
she even started kick starting herself! i remember it took me a few days- maybe even a week of "getting a push" to be able to start when i was learning. but she is at a comfortable enough height on her bike that she can kind of walk a little fast and then bring her feet to the peddles quickly. and her balance is so good that she even wobbles pretty heavily at first but sticks it out and straightens up when her speed picks up.
today i promised her we could practice some more at the park- the one with the flat track around the fields- practice some breaking. she likes to break by putting her feet on the ground. i try not to scare her about things but i HAD to tell her how aunt christina broke her leg- by putting her foot down on the ground flat and secure and unmoving and having the fast still moving peddle come up behind her calf and - just keep moving through her calf basically!
on the street i was careful to set her up in a position where she would be going downhill gently for a little bit and after a flat space it would go uphill enough to slow her down to stop. we want to avoid the combination of a 4 year old with a full length cast and a 30 week pregnant mom. so we practice breaking today- bikes not legs.
here is mary jane biking 2 years ago. love this video- her expressions are priceless.
2 comments:
Way to go MJ!! Thank you for adding the part about the broken leg. Our Elizabeth brakes with her feet the same way; it never occurred to me that she could break her leg doing it! I truly appreciate your posting this!
yeah- it was pretty unsettling. i can't remember how old i was at the time but i distinctly remember feeling ill at the sight of her leg. mary jane has somewhat figured out how to softly break now. but before that i would have a mini-panic everytime she flew down a hill wobbling all over the place with her legs flailing out.
you could tell she was completely comfortable with the whole act because she was whooping with joy. so i'm kind of glad she couldn't see or feel the panic in me.
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