Riding A Bicycle

Well, it's official...Rebecca can now ride a two-wheeler. Since we took off the training wheels a couple of months ago, Rebecca has been practicing on our sidewalk. I've been using a method where I take one of my old, ugly ties, and wrap one end around Rebecca and hold onto the other end, so I can gently re-direct her if she loses balance (Thanks for the tip Portnay family).

At first, I was constantly yanking on the tie, pulling Rebecca to one side or the other so she wouldn't fall off the bicycle. But lately, I found myself keeping the tie slack - basically doing nothing as she rode for some pretty good distances. The main problem was that she was riding on the sidewalk, which is not very wide, and most of the houses on the block have stone walls coming up against the sidewalk. Being that Rebecca was still very wobbly on the bike, she kept crashing into these walls.

So it made sense that we should take her to a big empty parking lot where there is nothing to crash into. This way, she could ride as wobbly as she wants without crashing into anything...And I think this did the trick.... About 10 minutes into it, Rebecca said "Dad, let go of the tie now"

Wow...what a big moment on so many levels....Rebecca telling me to let go of the tie so she can be independent. Well, this was the moment we had been working toward for a long time. And off she went - riding her bike through the parking lot, with reckless abandon. It was great. Jen and I are so proud of Rebecca, and more importantly Rebecca is proud of herself. Now we have to work on stopping...but one thing at a time.