Mikey Rides a Bike

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Yesterday Mikey learned how to ride a bike! We’ve been trying to get him interested in learning how to ride a bike for a few years now. He’s never been interested. A little bit scared and just plain not interested (probably because he’s so nervous). One time he told me that there was just too much pressure being the youngest and it was stressing him out! J So we’ve backed off and just figured he’d let us know when he was ready. Yesterday he came to Jeff and said, “Dad I’m ready to learn how to ride a bike today.” And they went out to the street, Jeff held on to the bike and he started riding! He’s very cautious and he still wants to baby-step it and only do about 20 minutes a day. But I came home from driving carpool and he was up on his bike, riding like a champ!

After school today he asked me if I could help him practice again. Of course I would! We practiced and kept trying to go a little further each time. He still needs help starting and a little help stopping but he’s got it! I asked him what made him decide to learn. He told me they had been reading a book at school about a girl who had to sneak to learn to read because she wasn't allowed to and that she was so brave. He told me if that girl could learn to read “which is easy,” he said, “I could learn to ride a bike!”

When I was tucking him in to bed tonight I leaned down and kissed him on the cheek and whispered “I’m so proud of you Mikey!” He smiled a sweet smile and looked up at me and whispered back, “I’m so proud of myself.”