Over the weekend Tone' and I and the boys went camping at Nehalem Bay State Park with our church. Nikolas and his buddies, Willie and Wyatt, spent most of the time riding their bikes and trikes up and down the road. They all especially favored Wyatt's cool bike and did a pretty good job, (for 3 & 4 year olds) taking turns. It soon became apparent that Nikolas was ready to try riding without training wheels as he was zipping around like a little speed racer. He had a lot of fun standing up while riding and skidding his back tires as well.
Our friend, Will, borrowed a bike from another boy and took Nik for his first two wheel ride. Then Daddy took over. They didn't practice long, but it was long enough to know that Nik, indeed, was ready to go without training wheels.
Once we made it back home we borrowed our neighbors little bike and within seconds of Tone' running along side him Nik was riding all by himself!
He did keep Daddy on his toes, however, as he was still a bit wobbly for a while.
3Years and 3 months and riding a bike without training wheels.
What's next?
The next day we swapped Nik's too big bike for his friend Wyatt's bike and we spent the evening practicing some more. It was getting tiresome as I had to run beside him constantly since he hadn't figured out how to start, turn or stop without falling down. I was beginning to wonder if this was such a great idea, picturing myself doing this the rest of the summer. Not to worry though, within 15 minutes he was able to ride down the street, turn around, ride up the driveway, turn around on a dime, ride down fast, stand up while riding, skid his back tires and stop without crashing.
The learning curve on this child is amazing!
When it was time to go inside I asked Nik if he had fun riding his bike without training wheels. His response was, "I like my falling wheels, like Daddy!"
After falling a few times he has given the name "falling wheels" to two wheeled bikes, including Daddy's. Makes sense; four wheels don't fall, two wheels do.
Children are brilliant.
I am thinking that I need to keep Nik away from bigger boys who are biking as he will try to mimic anything they do. I can just imagine Nik trying to haul a piece of wood from the garage to make a jump with. I know, it's inevitable, but can it at least wait until he's four?!
2 comments:
I could tell he was ready last week, and very interested in it too. I'll watch Lukas so you can run alongside if you need to! Hee hee. Course Lukas will want to ride also. We need to hit some garage sales and find more tiny bikes.
Hmmm, does he need Zach's ramps?
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