Freedom on two wheels...

The theme of our family life these days seems to be Experiencing New Things. There was Derek's Middle School visitation, and Derek getting a 21-gear bike, and...hey, wait a minute, how come Derek gets to do all the interesting stuff? Well, Riley finally decided that he was not going to get left behind for one minute longer. (not that he can follow his brother to 6th grade, but then who wants to leave for school so early in the morning, anyway?) Although for the past couple of years we've been desperate for Riley to learn to ride his own bike, he has dug his heels in and stubbornly refused to jump on the two-wheeled bandwagon. Tactics have run the gamut from pleading (please learn to ride, so we can take fun family jaunts together!) to encouraging (c'mon, you have great balance, we know you can do it!) to bribing (if you figure this out, you can choose a new bike!) to pressuring (everyone else in the neighborhood can do it, don't you want to join them?) But Riley insisted that he was perfectly content performing daring (reckless, heart-stopping for Mom) feats of skill and speed on his little Razor scooter and did not need a bicycle at all, thank you very much....until the moment Derek pedaled off on his bigger, cooler, faster new wheels and Riley was left eating his (metaphorical, thankfully) dust.

Then all of a sudden it was imperative that Younger Brother be able to keep up with and chase after his Older Brother. So Riley strapped on his helmet with stony-faced determination, and set off with Husband to practice. I'm not kidding about this: it took all of about 10 minutes for him to completely master riding a bike. (Gee, you think he was ready? And may I just seize the Parental Prerogative here and say WE TOLD YOU SO!)  He spent the next several hours whizzing in circles around the cul-de-sac, his face becoming tomato-red in the Summer heat, pausing only to dash in the house and chug a glass of ice water before returning to the circuit. By the end of the day, he was venturing as far as 2 cul-de-sacs down, confident that he could brake well enough to control his speed on the way down, and also push hard enough to conquer the slight hill on the way back up. Just before bedtime that night--apparently still feeling the effects of his exercise endorphin rush--he asked if he could ride by himself to the little playground around the corner. Whoa, there, cowboy, let's not get all wacky with this brand new power of yours. How about we try riding somewhere together before you request permission to take your bike to Starbucks for an afternoon snack?

Silly, silly me...I forgot that the problem inherent in teaching your kids new, exciting things that they can do all by themselves...is that then they want to leave you and go off to practice them. Rats. Okay, okay, tomorrow I'll let Riley designate a destination for the Inaugural-Out-of-Our-Neighborhood ride. But I'm coming along...and I definitely get the biggest Frappuccino!