Big Boy, Big Bike

For Ethan's birthday, we decided to get him a big-boy bike. He's tall enough now that he looked like he had to fold himself into his tricycle, although he still loved riding it. So a week before Ethan's birthday, John went out and found a beautiful red Schwinn bike and brought it home. Having heard many horror stories about parents attempting to assemble bikes the night before the big event, he decided to put it together right away. And it looked HUGE.

But we decided we'd give it to Ethan and see if he could ride it, rather than take it back and get the smaller bike. (The way Ethan's been growing, we want to give him as much room to grow as possible.) I took THE DAY off work, and after Ethan got home from school, we had our little family celebration. We had some smaller presents, as well as some gifts from various neighbors for him to open. Then, after everything else -- including cake -- was done, we took him into our room to "unwrap" the bike.

It still looked huge, but Ethan climbed right on, and with a couple of minor adjustments, was riding it through the living room so we could go outside. Now we fully expected that it would take him a while to warm up to the new style of riding. It certainly took long enough for him to enjoy the trike. But not this time. Half a block of instructions on how to peddle forward, not hit the brakes, and he was off. (The bike does have training wheels, lest you think he's an athletic genius.)

And we have been biking everywhere since — to school, to the train, to the park, and even (a half mile each way) to the grocery store. He is a boy in love.