No Snow...so....THIS Happened:

yeah...my kid's rolling on a 2 wheeler. And I gotta say...he isn't just teetering around on the thing....he's ripping it LIKE A BOSS. Since we've had no snow and clear roads all Winter...the biking season has pretty much carried right through from Autumn. That was all the extra time that the kid needed to turn into Speed Racer on his rusty 2-wheeler. I'm dumbfounded.

One of the pinnacle moments of fatherhood...one that after-school specials and made-for-TV movies have shown to be an absolute certainty, is the dad.....running behind the 2 wheeler with his hand on the back of the seat...teaching their child about balance. over and over and over....until...finally....the child FINALLY gets it and wobbles him/herself a couple of yards while the dad gives chase in super-slo motion with arms raised towards the sky in triumph...right before the kid runs into a mailbox.

Nope.

Didn't get any of that.

4 steps.

That's what I got.
4 steps.

That's all it took.

Then he was OFF.

No looking back.

I blame this:



The Strider Bike (Since the boy is now rolling big time, Ivy inherited this hog). The idea is that it makes a kid learn all about balance but has no pedals....it's like a mutant scooter, the crazy thing is that it teaches kids balance at like an insanely early age...which, once they get that down, is apparently super-easy to add pedaling into the mix and, BAM...they are rocking a legit 2 wheeler. See for yourself:



For most kids under 4, they aren't given an opportunity to learn about vehicular balance before actually trying to ride a 2-wheeler...that's why it's usually such a chore when they finally get the training wheels off. This little gem allows a super young kid to get the idea of balance first...then eventually add in the element of pedaling....often without even the transition of training wheels. I gotta tell you....this balance bike turns kids into bicycle ninjas. It's unreal how quickly Gavin took to a 2-wheeler pedal bike after riding this baby for 6 months or so.

Ivy's got it now...and I wouldn't be surprised if she was on a pedal bike by her 3rd birthday. No pressure but, at any rate...we've been having a blast tooling up and down the neighborhood on our hogs. Here's proof:





It's crazy-amazing to watch your children's world get bigger. They learn to roll over, suddenly their world gets bigger by a blanket. They learn to crawl, suddenly their world gets bigger by a room. They learn to walk, suddenly their world gets bigger by a house. They learn to speak, suddenly their world gets bigger by words. They learn to ride a two-wheeler, suddenly their world gets bigger by:


Part of me wants to say: "Get back here!! You're still so little".

But there's that other part of me...that part that I know that I have to embrace that's screaming "GO MAN, GO!!".

Ride, Captain, Ride.