Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Abby is a bike rider!

Abby learned how to ride her two wheeler! This afternoon I asked Abby if she might be interested in trying her bike without the training wheels. She said ok, but she was unsure. I said that if she didn't like it, we could put them right back on. We took them off and Abby got on the bike. At first, she was nervous. I allayed her fears by showing her how I could pick her AND the bike up at once, and if I could do that there was no way she could fall as long as I was holding on. She accepted that and we took a few turns around the driveway. I then took my hands off the handlebars and asked her to steer herself, and she did. After a few minutes, I began to relax the hand holding the back of her seat so that she could learn to make the little balance corrections she would need on her own. Eventually I put my hand up on her back, and at that point I wasn't holding her up at all. I pointed that out to her, and she beamed with pride. Next she asked me to take my hands off for a moment. I did, and she rode a few feet on her own! The whole process took ten minutes. Over the next hour, she rode longer and longer times without me holding until she was going around the driveway completely on her own! I had no idea it would take her such a short amount of time to learn, but learn she did. She's so proud of herself, and her mommy is very proud of her, too!

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