Milestone for HG: Riding her Bike

Generally, HG has not been interested in learning to ride her bike without training wheels, although she was a bit more curious after having fun with her daddy on the tandem bike in Alys Beach over fall break. John added a long handle to the back of her bike so that he could help her, and she will occasionally get on and give it a try.

This past week, John suggested giving it a try again, and she begrudgingly obliged him. They worked on it for a few afternoons, and she once again showed us that she doesn’t like to do something until she’s confident that she can do it well and without help. On one attempt, she got going fast, took her feet off the pedals to catch herself, only to have the pedal catch her on the back of her heel. She came running in the house screaming and crying. Once she calmed down with some ice, we reminded her how she got back on the horse when she fell off of it- and that horse was going a lot faster than she was on her bike. Something clicked in her head, and she stopped crying, changed into jeans and tennis shoes (from shorts and sandals), and went out there to try again. And what do you know- that girl GOT it! She rode it all by herself!

I wasn’t able to catch her on film that first night, but she showed me the next night. See how proud she is in the video below. "Like 'holy crap!'"