I just watched our two middle sons tear down the driveway on their bikes, the 6 foot 3 inch older brother leading the way with the 5 foot 9 inch brother in hot pursuit. As their mom, I enjoyed watching them set off on their adventure. The older brother (child number 3) has decided that he wants to do some bike riding this summer. So he has begun getting up earlier than his summertime-sleeping-in siblings to begin his ride before the day gets too hot. This morning, however, younger brother (child number 4), was also up and dressed and ready to follow older brother wherever he went on his biking trek. Older brother wasn’t thrilled with this development, but the mom (me) thought it okay and he had to agree.
So younger brother fixed a water bottle to take and dusted the spider webs out of a bike helmet so he could tag along. (Older siblings don’t always like the tagging along thing that younger siblings love to do…younger siblings seem to love it). And they began their journey…older brother moving swiftly and younger brother peddling like crazy to keep up…all of this down our sloped driveway, with speeds mounting. The mom began praying that the older brother wouldn’t harm the tag-along younger brother and that they would not do any stupid or dangerous stunts as they turned onto the county road at the end of the sloped driveway.
I watched their backs as they disappeared down the hill and I remembered when the younger brother first learned to ride a bike without training wheels; it was the first day that older brother went to kindergarten.
On that day, even though older brother was child number three, it was still hard for the mom (me) to let her young five-year-old go. I was weepy that morning after having taken child number 3 to his new school. I returned home with younger brother, child number 4, and wondered what we would do to fill the hours before child number three returned home, along with children, numbers one and two.
I didn’t have to wonder for long, because child number 4, younger brother, was adamant that he wanted to ride his bike (the little bicycle spray-painted purple so no one could tell it was his older sister’s pink bike)…AND child number 4 wanted to ride his bike WITHOUT any training wheels. Child number 4 is a very focused and determined person and after a bit of discussion, I began taking the training wheels off the spray-painted purple bike.
The problem with child number 4 trying to ride his bike without the training wheels was that child number 4 could not touch the ground with his feet when he was seated upon the bike. The hand-me-down bike was still a bit big for child number 4. It had worked with the training wheels because the training wheels held the bike up for number 4 to sit upon. (I think that I forgot to mention that at this time child number 4 was three-and-a-half-years old, but a very determined three-and-a-half-year old none the less.)
So I pushed the bike without the training wheels out of our garage and out onto the driveway with child number 4 walking alongside me. He mounted the bike and I began to push him gently as he began to pedal…and then I let go of the bike, which determined child number 4 was balancing and pedaling along. As I watched him pedaling hard and actually riding the bike, without the training wheels, I began to wonder, “What’s going to happen when it’s time to stop the bike? He can’t touch the ground…he’ll fall over.” But child number 4 was way ahead of me in his thought process and when he reached the end of our driveway…he didn’t stop the bike…he just bailed. He jumped right off the bike and the bike kept on going for a couple of feet and then fell over.
I gasped when I saw him jump off the bike…but he landed on his little three-and-a-half-year-old feet wearing a huge grin on his cute little face. He did it! He had ridden the bicycle without any training wheels! He had challenged the purple-spray-painted-hand-me-down bike and he had won! He looked at me, with that big grin on his face, and announced, “Again!”
And so that’s how the morning of child number 3’s first day of kindergarten went for me (the mom) and child number 4. He would climb up on the bike that was too big for him as I held it still and then he would take off with a gentle push from me…ride the length of the driveway and then leap to the ground as the bike kept right on going. What a way to ride! What a great memory for this mom…AND by the way…the two middle brothers did make it safely back from their first long-distance bike ride together.
This is a bit after the morning bike ride.
This is the youngest child…child number 5, who wasn’t even in the story, but likes to have his picture taken.
Read Full Post »
pieces and ponderings 