Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Yvie Rides Off

We had a breakthrough here at the LB house. On Monday, Yvie officially learned to ride a bike on her own.

Now, this could have happened much sooner had we invested in some bikes before but we had hand-me-down bikes that just didn't work right but tried to use those. Luckily, though, we, I mean, Santa left some nice new ones here on Christmas morning for the girls. Parents spend the money, Santa gets the glory...

Anyway, with a nice new bike in tow, we tried in earnest to teach Yvie to ride a bike. We had some problems in the early going, spills, tears and the like - Yvie even once confessed to me while on her bike "This is my greatest fear, riding a bike."

But alas, an empty school parking lot served as the setting for Yvie's first giant leap towards self-sustained bicycling about 10 days ago, and Monday she finally did it. She got up on her bike, pushed herself off and pedaled away all on her own.


The day wasn't without its setbacks. Yvie fell hard a few times, scraping her elbow and bruising up her right leg in the process. But the gutsy and determined warrior that she is, I asked her after one of the times she fell if she wanted to go home and she immediately said "No" while still crying. And sure enough, she got up, composed herself and took off.


This breakthrough will open so many doors now, one of which I pursued immediately. On Tuesday I took the girls to Mt. Rubidoux. We didn't bike up Mt. Rubidoux but there are bike paths behind it and we cruised up and down it. That bike path was part of the course for the Mission Inn Half Marathon, so it was pretty cool to head down it once more.

So we can take family trips down to the beach now and the girls and Mrs. LB can bike along the path while I go for a run or we can all bike down the beach path together. Kennedy's bike has training wheels but soon enough she will be biking all on her own too.

Thank you, Santa.

12 comments:

tahoegirl said...

Sweet! Freedom for Yvie. She is really growing up.

I like it when you post about your family. :o)

Kathrin said...

What a milestone!!! Congrats to the proud parents. While Santa gets the glory for the bikes, you get all the memories that are going to be made with them! ;-)

Jephy's Mom said...

Way to go Yvie!

Detroit Runner(Jeff) said...

Very exciting! My daughter was a late bloomer on the bike. We tried and tried and then just one day, she got it!

Michael said...

How exciting! Thanks for sharing such a special moment with all of us. Congrats to Yvie!

Kerrie said...

I read this earlier, but couldn't comment. Love this! This is one that you'll look back on when she DRIVES off to college. :)

Jill said...

Good thing you don't live on my street, my twin boys just got their driving permits! I'm not sure Yvie would be safe!

Willoughby said...

Hooray for Yvie!

I remember when my son learned to ride a bike without training wheels. My husband and I were getting frustrated and told him to take break (because we needed one). As soon as we left him alone with the bike, he figured out how to ride it by himself. My daughter hasn't had any interest in riding a bike at all. She's 11, not sure she'll ever be interested, now.

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I'm not sure Yvie would be safe!
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