No Training Wheels

Charlie, Steve and I went to McCollum Park a few weekends ago, the park with the "squishy ground" and the one thats "next to my dads moms moms house"...Steve has so many grandparents its hard to distinguish whos who.

We got down to the park only to find that all the action was across the parking lot.

They were having a BMX competition for kids, all the kids were Steves age or smaller, like 3 years old riding aroud not only without training wheels but over hills and racing. Steve was mesmerized.

"I want to do that, really really bad."

"You have to take off your training wheels if you want to do that"

"Lets do it now!"

So, a few days later Steve and I went and picked up his bike and Charlie took off his training wheels.

We dont exactly live in a biker-kid friendly neighborhood so we went down to the Centennial Trail in Machias.

It was a Thursday so it wasnt very busy, which was nice because learning to ride a bike is a take up the whole pavement kind of thing.

"Ok Steve, youre going to fall and it may hurt for a second and be kind of scary but the important thing is that you get back up and try again. I know that you can do this, we can work on it as long as you want to."

"Ok, dont let me go."

"Will do Buddy."

After about 10 minutes of not being able to get to ride his bike by himself, he got a little discouraged and wanted to quit.

"I just dont want to do this anymore, I dont like it."

"Im not walking your bike all the way back, lets just try and ride it back and then you can be done."

After about 3 more minutes of me getting him steady and letting him go then falling, he started to get his balance down. Then it was on.

After about 15 minutes he was riding his bike sans training wheels all by himself. It was amazing! I was incredibly impressed and proud.

I cant believe this milestone has already occurred and how fast he learned.

Time really does go by fast.