Ian's New Wheels

Yes, it's APRIL and I have not had one post from the year 2012!!  I just cannot even believe how ridiculous my schedule has been the last four months.  As it turns out, the adage that stay-at-home moms do nothing but sit around and eat Bon-Bons is a TOTAL lie!  Wish someone would have told me that in advance!  ;)  Anyway, the boy is feeling a little puny today, so I am giving him a pass on schoolwork which in turn, is opening up a little bit of time for blogging.  Let's see how much I can pack into a couple of hours!!!

I don't know if it was mentioned in a previous post, but the kids both got new wheels for XMAS.  Ian got a new bike, which for him was a BIG deal.  Years ago he had a bike and when we took the training wheels off, he bit it hard on the asphalt, threw his bike down and swore he'd never ride a bike again!  We were heartened when just before Christmas, he expressed the desire for a bicycle!  So we took him out, measured him and bought him a new bike for Christmas and he was so happy, albeit a little scared of learning to ride it.

I looked up some different techniques on how to teach a child to ride a bike without training wheels and came across a program that looked perfect.  You had to find a nice little hill (not too tall) where the kid could roll down the hill and learn to steady the bike with his feet off to the side and not on the pedals.  I sent Brady down to our neighborhood park with the boy while I ran some errands with the girl.  The plan was for me to drop by after errand to check on progress.  Well, I drove up and immediately noticed Ian and Brady sitting on a bench and Ian looking sad and distraught with a big wad of Kleenex up to his nose full of blood!  All I could think, was "Oh crap, we are NEVER gonna get this kid on a bike again!"  Brady informed me that the boy has no balance and he didn't think he'd ever learn to ride a bike.  I was so bummed!  We decided to go, but Brady wanted Ian to try, just one more time and Ian reluctantly agreed.  He got positioned on his bike at the top of the hill and Brady helped him push off, the next thing I knew, the boy was riding all over the park like a pro!  Turns out, they were totally yanking my chain!  The bloody Kleenex was from a nose bleed due to the cold, dry weather NOT an injury sustained from crashing and burning!  Boys are such buttheads!  But you can't imagine how happy I was to see my young man riding around and having a blast!  Seriously.  There were tears!  2012 is gonna be a big year, I can already tell!  Here he is, showing off on his new ride!  Yay, Ian!