ISM #3

It's a precious moment in every parents life. The day your child...sits up, takes their first step, rides their first bike. A joy and picture-perfect moment that we usually treasure.

Enter>Asa
Asa got his first bike last year and quickly mastered the bike-with-training-wheels process. Watching him ride was magic...wobbling from left to right, bouncing off the training wheel on either side. So he's four, and we decided HEY lets take Asa's training wheels off. He's a big boy now.

Daddy completes said task without Asa's knowledge and we head for the great outdoors, or at least the empty roads at the back of our subdivision. It doesn't take Asa long to realize, SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH MY BIKE.

(commence the crying, screaming, and yelling)"I don't want to ride like this."

We think, hey we'll keep walking and he'll make his own decision. You can't force a kid to do this. So we walk, occasionally getting Asa to pedal a couple yards, screaming the whole time, "I want to go home, I want my training wheels, I'm going to die."

We walk the whole way, maybe a mile, with Asa pushing his bike behind us. FINALLY, we're a block from the house and Sean and I are just grateful to put an end to the suffering...ours. As we approach the house, I notice dog poop on the sidewalk and do the motherly thing, "Boys watch out for the poop."

Aidan looks down as he passes, "Ooooo gross. People need to pick up their mess."

Asa is a couple feet behind me, entranced by the poop on the sidewalk. Still pushing his bike, he's mesmerized by it. "Asa, don't step in the poop."

"I know." But he can't stop looking at it. He's just even with the poop, looking down, and proceeds to fall over the pile with his bike. Fortunately, he righted himself and averted a major catastrophe. Walking up the driveway with his bike, he yelled at his dad, "When I'm an adult, I'm putting my training wheels back on."

It was not a good "first" experience and we haven't taken him bike riding since.