The Wheels Come Off!

Right before we left for our trip to Canada on Labor Day weekend, Zachary decided that he was a big boy and wanted his training wheels off.  Daddy promised that when we returned that he would teach Zachary, so when we got back on Monday after naps we headed over to Teague Middle School's track to start the adventure.

Amy remembered learning herself how to ride a bike, and of course has seen other children over the years - so frankly was expecting a lot of falls.  In true "safety conscious" form, she brought elbow and knee pads to ensure that Zachary did not end up bloodied.  Kaleb though insisted that he have his own knee pads, so we took off Zachary's elbow pads to put on Kaleb's knees.

Karis took him out into the grassy middle of the track, and off they went.  He ran behind Zachary, holding on, and then let go and off Zachary went - with nary a fall!  In fact, it was amazing, HE NEVER FELL!?  What??  He fell once while getting on the bike (he insisted that he could only start if the left pedal was the one at the top, which was tricky for him to get it up each time) but seeing as he was just standing there it wasn't much of a fall to speak off. 

Other than getting started, Zachary never had any problems and in fact that first day he began to "race" Daddy around the track with Karis sprinting as fast as he could go and Zachary pumping his little legs as fast as they'd go.  Those "sprints" were interesting as Zachary's front wheel would wildly wobble as they went around the corners of the track but he managed to keep it together somehow!  He also began to do "skid stops" that day where he'd be pedalling a mile a minute and then slam on the brakes - sliding a good 5-8 feet laying black rubber on the pavement from his tires - all the while perfectly balanced.

This was one of those moments in life where you're so proud of your child - for learning a new skill so quickly, keeping at it when it was a bit hard to get started.  It was also a moment truthfully of misty eyes - how can our little boy be so big that he doesn't have training wheels anymore?  We're not ready for him to be big yet!  Sniff. :)

Phrase of the week:  As we've mentioned in the past, Zachary loves animals.  This morning he was snuggling with Daddy in bed, and their conversation went like this - Daddy:  How much does a polar bear weigh?  Z:  "800-1600 pounds".  D:  How much does a Fox weigh weigh?  Z:  "6-20 pounds"  D: How much does an alligator weigh?  Z:  "800-1000 pounds"  This kid reads the numbers from the animal flash cards and has them memorized!  Amazing.  Mom actually had to go and get the cards in order to recreate this conversation because she can't remember how much everything weighs!  Kaleb's is related to animals as well, but isn't an actual phrase but rather an activity- he was sitting with Amy one day, and he begins to take his little fingers and "pick" at things on her skin and put them into his mouth.  After watching him repeat this several times, she asked him what he was doing and he said "I'm picking bugs and eating them off of you!"  Ahh - didn't realize that there were bugs on Mommy and who knew that Kaleb was an ape! :)

Crazy faces - silly boy!