Monday, January 25, 2010

Look, No Training Wheels!

It was 80 degrees here on Friday so we spent much of the afternoon playing in our front yard. After about an hour, D'arcy asked if I would take her training wheels off her bike so that she could learn to ride like Jayden and Keagan, two first grade girls in our neighborhood. I can't believe I so willingly said yes since I haven't had motivation to do much of anything in the last couple of weeks. It took just a few twists of the wrench to get the training wheels off, and we headed down to the sidewalk to start.

D'arcy wanted to put both feet on the pedals before pushing off, and was quickly falling over. I showed her the best way to push off with one foot on the pedal and one on the ground. After a couple of tries, she had gotten the hang of it, but still needed some practice with balance. But thanks to much scooter riding, her balance was already pretty good, and after about an hour, a couple of falls, and one scooby-doo Bandaid, she was riding a bike like the big girls.

Stephen came home and amazed him with her new skills. I don't know how long these things usually take, but what I've discovered with D'arcy is that when she desires to learn something, she is persistent to practice until she gets it. She proved that with her scooter, and with her jump rope, and now with her bike. I had seen this quality come out early in Julian with his puzzles when at 1 1/2 he would work and rework this very basic Curious George puzzle until he could fit the pieces into the right spot. One day he spent over an hour doing that. It's great to see this quality coming out in D'arcy as well.

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