Bike Riding Torture and Success

A month or so ago we got Jayce a bike.

I think he likes it.  In theory, anyway.

This is the first time that Chris or I have ever taught one of our kids to ride a bike before.  You'd think that the fact that we were once kids who learned to ride our bikes, or the fact that Chris rides to and from work every day now might help us to know how to accomplish this feat, but it doesn't.

The first several attempts were basically torture.  I honestly don't know who was more frustrated, Jayce or us, because he didn't really seem to care about learning so he wasn't really trying.  But then again, he did run into a brick wall once, and I think he wanted to avoid that in the future.

Last weekend we took him out two days in a row and he finally got it.  I guess it's just one of those things that you have to keep trying until it clicks, and it finally did click. :)  

Hannah and I were taking some photos of her in her new dress, but we had our eyes on him the whole time.  We stopped and cheered and ran over to him for hugs when he had some success.

My big boy.  He finally got it.

Of course, while he was at it Hannah was dying to join in.  She kept running over yelling "I wanna try!  I wanna ride my bike!"  This is pretty typical of these two.  Jayce is always a little more subdued and cautious, but Hannah is up for anything all the time.  She wants to be a part of the action with everything.  You should see her when Chris tries to take out the trash without her, she's devastated.

I thought Chris was going to just push her along, but instead there was this "not approved by mom" version going on all down the trail.

Next time there will be a helmet mom, I promise.

When Hannah jumped off the bike, she ran down to me and said, "Mom, now you hug me and say, Hannah I'm so proud of you!"  Which I did.

Fingers crossed it will be a lot easier the second time around, but luckily we still have a few years before then.