Thanks Grandpa Birdie!!!

Every year for Christmas, my Grandpa Birdie (Mom's dad) gives the kids money for Christmas. When we were little, it was a special present, and as we've gotten older (and harder to buy for), it evolved into money. Grandpa doesn't care that we've told him to stop--he still gives us each an envelope for Christmas. My Grandma Jan was an Olympic Shopper. She LOVED to shop. And as our Christmas gift from them turned into money (and she was out of a "job" as Christmas shopper), she always asked us to tell her what we chose to spend the money on.

This year, we chose to spend the money on bigger bikes for the kids. It's sad, but my kids still don't ride bikes. Their training wheel bikes are too small for them, and I thought that having a nice, new bike would make the prospect of learning to ride less scary and more exciting.

We bought the bikes the day after Valentine's day and took the kids to the school to have their first lesson. Wow, I got to run around a lot (Robert did too). Neither kid learned how during our 90-minutes of running. They lack confidence. I went home and googled "teaching kids to ride a bike" and learned that we were doing it all wrong (of course). I had Robert take the training wheels and pedals off of Hannah's old bike and lower the seat all the way down. We've spent the last month just coasting down the street on the "scoot bike" and learning how to balance. Toph does this on his "real" bike now. Hannah can too. They have pretty much mastered the art of balancing. Now they need the confidence to put their feet on the pedals and actually RIDE.

An unexpected and good outcome in all of this is that Hannah has learned how to ride her scooter! She got hurt a long time ago and decided that she didn't like scootering. When trying to learn how to balance, we told Hannah that riding her scooter would actually help her ride her bike too, so she decided to give it a try. Some time in the near future we're going to hit a local park that has a grassy slope and insist that the kids use the pedals. They're ready for it.

Then we're going to go to the school and ride around the track--first one to ride around the track gets $5.00!

My Grandpa Birdie got me my first bike, and I still remember learning how to ride it. I'm glad the tradition has carried down to my kids. Thanks Grandpa Birdie!!!!!!