There she goes to save the day...

Yes siree. Amelia rode her bike, without training wheels, for the first time tonight. I am literally beside myself.

I want to say thanks to Tim Marti, who told me about a new(relatively) method to help kids learn to ride a bike. Worked like a charm.

About a week ago, I took the training wheels off of Amelia's bike. I also removed the pedals. Anyone who knows our risk-averse kid, knows that the training wheels coming off is a huge deal. She saw the stripped-down bike in the garage and asked me why I took off the pedals. I told her she had to kick around on the bike for a total of 3 hours, before I would put them back on.

She started out slowly, just barely pushing herself along. Over the next several days, she would spend 10 or 20 minutes at a time, kicking her way around the driveway and on the walkway to the front door. Each time she seemed to be a little more stable and moved a little faster.

Today she was zipping around and asked if it was enough time for me to put the pedals back on. I said it was close enough and had them on in a couple of minutes. She was really nervous when she picked up the bike and climbed on. I told her to just put her feet down, if she needed to, like she had been doing for the last week. She started out kicking her way around the driveway, picked up her feet and put them on the pedals, and stated riding. Just like that.

Riding a bike, takes a lot of little skills and a little bit of confidence to come together at the same time. An admittedly tall order for a Barfield. My kid pulled it off in grand fashion. I could not be more proud.

stayathomebryan is pleased. very pleased.