…last weekend (yes, you read that right – last weekend. Well, I guess I should say weekend before last now. Memorial Day weekend. Okay?)…
So, anyway, I had one goal last weekend. Just one. And guess what?

MIssion accomplished.
 

 
It’s one of the two tasks of parenthood I just hate  – along with potty training. (Which is why it’s taken us so long to get to focus on the task). Mostly, I think because while  you have to be in charge of it happening (unless there are helpful older siblings or friends around. Well, maybe not with the potty training so much), there is really only so much you can do. It’s all about their little inner selves being okay with the prospect of this new thing and believing that it can be done and that really – not only is it better than the status quo, it’s for the best.
Hmm.
Life does not change so much, I’m thinking.
Anyway.
So it happened. Day 1 was really hard on both of us – well, all three of us, because Katie came down to help. Every time he would get going, he would just stop pedaling, for some reason, and then fall over, not seeming to grasp the concept that Feet Off Pedals = Fall Over. Day 2 was a little better and Day 3 was magic. By george, he got it. Still a little wobbly (partly, I think because the bike is a little too small), but finally at the point where he was really enjoying it, delighting in how far he could go. Today, we had a single, additional goal – get him to the point where he could get started himself from a dead stop. He mastered that, too, and pretty quickly. Tomorrow he’ll be ready to ride around the park with me.
And he’s very pleased with himself. Deservedly so.

 
Oh, and before the well-I-never starts (which takes the fun out of quick blogging, knowing the well-I = never comments that are coming and heading them off. )
1) No, those are not cars bearing down on him in the first picture. Those are parked cars. We did this on the back 40 of Foster Park – a road area leading to baseball fields that is a dead end. There are no games on the weekend, only kids coming down for batting practice or picnickers, so it’s a place to practice, clear of traffic.
2) He was wearing a helmet at first, but it bothered him so as he was struggling with just getting his balance, I said he could take it off for the twenty feet at a time he was able to ride at approximately 2 miles an hour (it seems). When we really venture forth, he’ll have the helmet on.
Anything else?
Oh,
3) He is not actually gunning for Michael in that first photo, either.