After spending this spring and summer watching bike racing (and nudged along by our neighbor boy’s accomplishment), Ethan has decided that he is ready to ride without training wheels. So we are in the throws of learning how to ride, and fall, on two wheels, rather than four.
Ethan and John started working on the no-training-wheels training, but apparently Ethan decided he didn’t like John’s technique. So on Friday he informed us that he was no longer going to ride with Daddy. Mommy was now in charge of the training.
I’m not sure Mommy has a better technique, but I was willing to try. So on Sunday morning, when we realized we were ready for church with 20 minutes to spare, Ethan and I decided to go out and try a couple of rides up and down the sidewalk – following John’s technique. After a few passes, we stopped for a minute to rest, and somehow Ethan managed to slide his leg between the crank and the bike’s frame. And there it stuck.
As soon as he realized his leg was stuck, Ethan panicked and started screaming. John was out running, so I ended up wheeling Ethan to the end of the block, where our neighbor Barry was out watering the garden. As soon as Barry got Ethan’s leg free (with the help of a little dish soap), Ethan said, “Thank you. Now I won’t have a bike stuck on my leg forever.”
That afternoon, since we were having such beautiful weather, we decided to go up to the high school and have a picnic. Ethan and I would go practice riding on the track, and John would go to Popeye’s and pick up some chicken and meet us for dinner.
After one lap around the track, I felt like my wrist was breaking from trying to hold Ethan upright whenever we slowed down. So I decided we should practicing falling (well, tipping over actually) so Ethan could get the hang of putting his foot down when he felt himself overbalancing. We spent about 5 minutes on the falling drill, until he was actually able to catch himself without my help.
On our next lap out, Ethan seemed much more relaxed and, consequently, was able to stay upright much better. Then, once we picked up speed a little, he actually was riding with very little support from me. Eventually, he gained enough confidence that he was able to do the straight parts of the track without any help from me, although I continued to run along side to help in the corners.
Unfortunately, Mommy then had the brilliant idea of changing directions to practice going the other way. Ethan started off full of confidence, got going faster than me, tipped over and crashed into the grass. Once again, the Mommy technique of bicycle riding involved me holding a panicking little boy who was sobbing inconsolably. Fortunately he wasn’t badly hurt (a goose egg on his shin, where he hit that same crank again, with a small scrape across it), just scared. So I told him all about my big bike accident (and showed him my scar), and then we started talking about all the crashes we’ve seen in the Tour de France so far this year. Just like the Tour riders, I told him he had to get back on the bike when he was done crying so he wasn’t afraid next time. And eventually, he did.
Fortunately, by the time we were done with dinner, he was anxious to get back out there and do more riding. After promising that I wouldn’t let go unless he told me to, we went back out on to the track. He did great, and he felt so confident that he even let Daddy do a couple of laps with him (fortunately, since Mommy was wiped out – I haven’t been doing enough running).
I think it won’t be long now before our little racer will be confident enough to leave Mommy in the dust.
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