Riding with No Training Wheels

While we were in Michigan Owen reached a milestone and successfully learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels! We noticed that he was fairly ready, when Grandma Sue took him for a ride on the bike, while Gavin was shopping for training wheels, but we put the training wheels on anyway so that he could keep up with his cousins.

The actual lesson to learn to ride was fairly spontaneous. I was sitting in my parents garage, relaxing after a fun-filled weekend with the whole family. Owen and Gavin were in the driveway playing. Owen came riding up the driveway on his bike, and with a second glance I realized there were no training wheels on his bike!

At first he could really only ride if someone got him started and he could only ride in one direction, but this didn't even last 24 hours.

The next day, I told Owen if he could ride the half mile or so to the ice cream shop we would buy him ice cream, so the next day he did it! After returning home from getting ice cream, Gavin got out my Dad's bike and took Owen for a bike ride to the Marina. When they got back Owen asked me to take him for another ride to the marnina.

The next day, I took Owen on a ride into Harbor Beach on the bike path. During this trip Owen got stopped by the Sheriff, no, he was not in trouble, he was caught being safe and received a coupon to McDonald's for wearing his helmet!

The following day, I needed to mail some things, so I took Owen for a ride to the Post Office. After completing our business there, Owen still wanted to go for a longer ride, so I took him through town and back home via the road just outside of town. This trip started to get a little long for him, but I explained we were making a big circle and that we were almost back and he made it! I was absolutely amazed at how fast he learned to ride and how fast he was able to take such long bike rides with us! Very proud moment for Mommy, Daddy, and Owen!

Let's Talk About it Now

As we were driving out of the church parking lot yesterday, Owen says to me, "Mommy, when I'm bigger, I am going to take the truck and Daddy can ride with Chris."

I replied, "oh really."

"Yes," he continued, "or I can drop Daddy off at his school and go to my school."

"mmmhmmm," is my response.

To this he says, "I will take the kids,"

"Who are the kids?" I asked.

"Well, I will take Max to school and you can take Lyla."

"Ok, well we can talk about this when you are 16," I suggest.

"No," he says, "let's talk about it now!"

And so the converstation continued for two more miles. I guess Owen has us figured out, we take a little while to get used to new ideas, so if he wants to use the car when he is 16 he better start discussing it now!