if you can't tell, i'm a little excited that chet learned how to ride his bike this week.
actually, i'm a lot excited.
i feel like learning how to ride a bike is a special milestone in a kids' life.. and chet did it!
plus, he is still only 3.
and i think a 3-year-old riding a bike without training wheels is pretty nifty.
we got chet a 'big boy bike' for christmas.
well, technically, santa did.
chet was thrilled when he opened it up.
but we headed up to calgary before he could give it a try.
and then, when we got back home, chet was kind of nervous to try.
we would ask him every couple days if he wanted to learn how to ride his new bike and he would always respond with 'maybe tomorrow'.
he is totally like me when it comes to things like this - if you make a big deal out of it, he pulls away - so we never pressured him.
we just kept offering to teach him. we knew he would eventually decide he was ready.
and, on thursday morning when i asked, he was ready!
so i wasted no time.. i hurried the boys down to one of the courtyard areas in our complex, set holden up with some toys, and got chet up on his bike.
here goes nothing!
we never even took the training wheels out of the packaging when we put his bike together because we wanted to see if the whole 'balance bike method' of learning how to ride your bike really works.
chet had mastered the balance bike almost a year ago.
he could get the bike moving, pick up his feet, and glide for long periods of time.
so we knew he had no issues with balancing.
it was just the pedaling that he needed to figure out.
it was just the pedaling that he needed to figure out.
i really had no idea how to teach a kid how to ride a bike.
how would i?
i was basically just going off of what i had seen in movies/TV/youtube clips.
and most of those clips usually ended up with the kid careening down a hill into a bush...
so i wasn't feeling super confident with my teaching skills!
although, i never let chet know that.
i told him i had been riding bikes for longer then he had been alive, so he was in really good hands.
i held on to the handlebars and helped chet go slowly back and forth in the courtyard.
each lap he got a little bit better and a little bit more excited.
i slowly started let go of the handlebars for a second here and there.
and by the end of our first practice session (which was about an hour and a half, including lots of drink/snack breaks) chet could ride for about 10 seconds on his own.
the next morning he was pumped to get out and try again.
and that was the day he officially could ride on his own.
crazy, right?
our 3 year old can ride a bike!
he was so excited to show his dad when he got home that night.
we are super proud of him.
and you can tell he thinks he is pretty special too.
now we need to get holden on chet's old balance bike.
maybe, if we work hard enough, holden can learn how to ride a two-wheeler when he is 2!
haha or not.
i posted this little video on facebook.
but this video is better.
side note:
chet has had the shirt he is wearing in that picture for over a year.
it is reversible.
one side says 'hanging out with dad' and the other says 'just chillin with mom'.
he has never chosen to wear the mom side until the day i took this picture.
it was pretty exciting for me.
until halfway through the day when chet said, 'i need to put my shirt on the right way before dad comes home.'
oh.. ok.
