from tears to triumph

If you have been to our house, you know we live on a killer hill. Needless to say, we never ride bikes at our house. And, Elijah may be the only six year old with training wheels. Because his selfish busy parents don't take him many places to ride, because it is inconvenient. (mom, I know this post is not good grammar and punctuation, but I like it anyway) But today, that has all changed. We packed up the bikes and headed to the track, which we have done many times before. But this time we brought daddy and the tools and the camera and time. Time to be patient with the sensitive child. We encouraged him and let him ride once around with the training wheels to get warmed up.



then, daddy took off the wheels.



And then the panic set in. He wasn't so sure about the whole idea. We reassured him that he could do it. he really didn't care what we said. Chuck took off holding him up and Elijah did not like the shaking. he started crying and getting really anxious.



I took off for a run and told him when I got back in twenty minutes, I wanted to see him ride that bike. Yes, if you are still stuck on the last sentence, I did run for 20 minutes. And lived to tell about it.
Ok, so upon my return, I grabbed my camera and set it to record. I captured video of my son hopping on by himself, riding across the school parking lot and basketball court with the biggest grin you have ever seen. And, if I knew how to put video on here, you too could see it. but since I am always way over busy with a HUGE to do list, I still haven't learned that skill, so you have to settle for just the photos now. Which ain't all that great, because I was trying to video and entertain sister, who wasn't quite sure what all the excitement was about. She was riding her scooter and aren't we gonna holler about that too?

So, for a last hooray, I challenged him to ride all the way around the track, with daddy jogging beside. he was up for the challenge and took off like a pro... he rode all the way around back to me and stopped. A perfect 10. this last picture is him riding along side his daddy. Notice the look on his face, sheer determination.



tonite we are going out for celebratory dinner at red robin. Partly because we are so proud of him and want to celebrate him and partly because tomorrow we (chuck and I) are both going off all sweets and desserts and such for 31 days.. just for fun. Oh, and we are only drinking water. No other yummy beverages. ha. bring on the triple high mud pie.