Big Wheels Keep On Turning!

As of February 3, 2009 my little Princess is a bike rider. 

I picked her up from school that day, and she and her teachers were beaming! "Guess what?" they ask me.

 "What?" 

Dramatic pause. . . . 

At this point I'm positive she has done something absolutely amazing-taught the class to read,written her name in cursive,  solved world hunger. . . 

"BELLA LEARNED TO PEDAL!"

Who needs reading?! My kid can finally pedal!!! 

I jump around the class like a maniac, hug her and kiss her, tell her over and over that I am so proud of her. You know, the usual proud mommy stuff. I have been trying to teach her since last summer with absolutely no success; she goes to preschool for one day and comes home knowing how to do it! Maybe they aren't over charging us. . .

Like most things requiring effort and energy,  the Princess has been completely uninterested in learning to pedal a bike. I don't know why I wasn't more prepared for her total lack of interest, she didn't crawl until she was 11 months old and didn't walk until she was 17 months old. No thats not a typo, it was really 17. She was perfectly happy having her fat little self toted around on my hip forever! She's simply never been a big fan of cardio, so I'm not sure why I expected her to be excited about learning to ride a bike. But that was all in the past. 

Or so we thought.

That night when daddy got home, we told him all about the monumental day. Then Mommy, Daddy, the Princess, and even Aunt Mary all loaded into the car for a trip to Wal-Mart to get a NEW BIKE!!! After some deliberation, we decided to go with the Barbie big wheel. Why not start small, then work our way up to the BMX. She did just learn.

So after getting home and helping Daddy assemble her new prize, we all set off. The plan was for us all to take a nice long stroll around the block-grown ups walking, Princess pedaling diligently alongside us. That was the plan. Since when does anything ever go according to the plan? It took us about 10 minutes to get as far as the next driveway, 40 feet away! This wasn't bike riding! I didn't understand! Her teachers had said, "She learned to RIDE a bike today" not "she learned to pedal twice then sit on a bike today." What had happened ?? 

But she wouldn't give up. So for the next 30 minutes Daddy, Aunt Mary, and I coaxed and encouraged her to keep trying while we quietly played a game of  "I bet I could do _______ before she gets back home." Example, I bet I could run a mile backwards and on one leg before she pedaled the 40 feet it would take to get back to our driveway. It was slow going to say the least.  But then, all of a sudden, it clicked!! She started pedaling (consistently) and didn't stop! The freedom of the open road, the wind blowing through her hair, she was unstoppable! We were all so proud. It was then that I realized, pedaling, just like everything else in her life, was something she had to do in her own time. She has never been one to be forced into anything, and this was to be no different. Why had I been so adamant about her learning before she was really ready? Because everyone else's child was ahead of her when it came to this? I won't make that mistake again.

 Through the simple act of her learning to ride her bike, she taught me that it is not my job as her mommy to force things upon her. It's my job as her mommy to point her in the right direction, and to be the gentle guidance she needs to learn and discover things on her own. She is her own person, smart and able, capable of anything, when and if she's ready.