Monday, March 9, 2009

Like a trained bear


Something happened this weekend that I wasn’t sure ever would.

Saturday morning, our family went to a birthday party for our friend Catey, who turns two today. We had fun helping her celebrate, but I had a migraine headache. I used to get them fairly regularly, but haven’t had them in years. For whatever reason, I’ve started to have them more frequently. So I crawled into bed with Meredith for her nap and suggested that Alex and Brandon go outside to enjoy the amazing weather.

Meredith’s room is above our driveway and I could hear Alex pitching some sort of a fit. I couldn’t make out what he was complaining about, and my nausea inducing headache wasn’t interested in his grievance. I fell asleep.

When I woke up an hour later, Alex nonchalantly said, “Hey Mom. I can ride my bike now.”

I thought I was in an Aleve coma. “What? Really?”

“Yep. Dad just taught me. Wanna see?”

Or course I wanted to see! I thought he was going to ride one of those giant tricycles to friends’ houses through junior high.

Sure enough, the boy can ride. Not only can he ride, but he’s completely confident, steady, and entirely in control. It isn’t the same wobbly ride that relegated me to empty parking lots and on the tennis courts until my dad trusted me on a sidewalk with pedestrians. Alex rides over curbs and through our yard. I was slack jawed.

From what I hear, there was no running behind the bike waiting for him to balance. Brandon just took off his training wheels, which was the source of the temper tantrum I heard from above. Alex pushed the bike around our driveway with his feet and then just started riding. What do you know?
This takes a couple of minutes to watch, and about half way through Meredith appears chattering about her My Little Ponies. Annie, if you're reading, see if you catch the name of one of her ponies. :)


We wasted no time, and took a family bike ride around our neighborhood and decided to pedal onto the park. Meredith cranked her pedals with all her might, but “yittle yegs,” can only go so fast.

Meredith, who is the Paris Hilton of our house---Paris Hilton with morals, had another party to go to Sunday afternoon. A little girl from her ballet class had quite the bash. Dora was even there. And she made balloon hats! She made an announcement that she would be painting faces, which I was dying to see her pull off in her giant head. The birthday girl’s mom put the squacho on that, so Dora was forced to announce Swiper the Fox had taken the face paints. Nice save, Dora.

4 comments:

Penny Pickles said...

That is awesome and can I tell you how I love the fact that Alex said NOTHING the entire time -just a man and his bike! I love it!!! And let miss hilton-webber know that we are very happy to hear about her new pony, Penelope!!!! Miss you! Hope your head is feeling better and looking forward to lunch on Thursday!

Sara Alexander said...

He owns that bike! I still think he could secretly ride the whole time. I am a bit concerned about the "friend" stand on the back. Before you know it he will be cruising down the street with one of his buddies standing on the back. Maybe he could become a bike courier to earn extra money:)

Robyn said...

Way to go Alex!!! You look like a pro.

Jill C. said...

He has mastered the bike! If you only had a "Trading Post" to ride to and get penny candy, it would be complete!! He is growing up too fast!! I think Merdi will bypass the bike and go for the pink caddy! Talk to you this weekend!