Brodie on Wheels

February 2012 was a great month for Brodie...he rode his bike around the trail at the park (without training wheels) for the first time! He took off and never looked back:) He now asks if he can ride almost every day and loves to go fast and make skid marks with his brakes. Is that a boy thing or what?? That was the short version. We do have a long version that goes with this experience, of course. I wish we didn't, but whatever. If you want to skip this part just head to the pictures/video below and enjoy :) This part is really for us to have/remember years down the road.
Brodie has been riding this same bike- with training wheels- since the moment he turned 3. We got it used so it had tons of miles on it, but that was cool with us. He loved it for a while and then the thrill of it waned for some reason. We didn't push it at all- it's not like Brodie was lacking in activities or anything. When he showed some interest again (at 4.5yr) we took him to ride 1 or maybe 2 times, without training wheels. That was Spring of 2011. Summer was too hot and when Fall hit, I think we took the time to try 1 more time. We could tell he was (kind of) getting it, but something seemed off (clue #1 or 2??). It wasn't until last month (February 2012) that he began asking to ride again. He was more determined this time, but we were having all kinds of trouble with the bike (screws were falling out, pedals were loose and uneven, etc.). Call it bad parenting if you want, but we thought he would be able to get the hang of it regardless of the somewhat broken bike. Sad. We took him out about 5 times and he could go a short distance without our help, but that was about it. I started feeling bad when, at one point, Kyle had to take the bike home to fix the pedal that had just fallen off as Brodie was riding. We finally bought new pedals for the bike and guess what??? Off he went- first try! It was a fun moment for sure and Brodie was thrilled, but I felt so bad at the same time. Why didn't we just take the time to figure out exactly what the bike needed and then make it happen....like 8 months ago? We were even considering buying a new bike. That would have been so silly and such a waste of money. I have so much to learn.
Here's our big 5 1/2 year old on the day he took off on his bike. We celebrated by getting ice cream afterwards! Way to go B man!