Two Wheelin'

Emma learned to ride her bike this week! She's had the bike forever, but was deathly afraid of riding it, with or without training wheels. So, back in October we bought the kids these little balance bikes.

 The bikes don't have pedals. The idea is that the kids use their feet to get momentum and then lift their legs to just zoom along and in the process they learn balance. They're close to the ground, and have complete control, since they're using their feet instead of pedals. I have to say, I was really skeptical of them at first. But I had so many people tell me that their kids went straight from a balance bike to a bike with no training wheels that I figured it was worth a shot. And it was totally worth it.

After a couple days of riding the balance bike, I knew Emma could definitely ride her real bike. The only problem was it was a little too tall for her comfort (though she definitely fits it), so she was scared to try. Luckily though, a 3 year old friend brought his two-wheeler to the park and when Emma saw the 3 year old riding it, she was determined to ride it too. She hopped on his (much smaller) bike and started pedaling while I held onto the seat. I let go without telling her and she kept going. After doing this a couple times, she took off all on her own and rode like she'd been riding her whole life.

When we got home, she begged to try her bike too. We pulled it out of the garage, she hopped on, and took off like she'd been riding forever. Hooray Emma!!!!

The irony of this whole thing is that we've been wanting her to ride her bike forever and she wanted nothing to do with it. As soon as she learned to ride it and wanted to ride it all the time, it got a major flat and she hasn't been able to ride it most of the week! New tube should be put in today and she'll be good to go!