Riding a Bicycle!!!!

Grampa arrived this morning, and Kevin had to say goodbye to Melanie after church.

We pass this window as we enter our condo building. The cat is usually lounging on the windowsill, so Kevin stops to talk to the cat through the window. The man from that condo came out today and invited Kevin to come inside to visit the cat. The cat wasn't all that impressed with Kevin up close!

All summer long, we have been waiting for Grampa to have the time/ambition to remove Kevin's training wheels and teach him to ride. It never happened, and we are running out of time. So today was the day! Finally!!!! The tools we brought are the wrong ones, so Grampa and grandson made a trip to Wal-Mart. They came home with tools and two "The Fox and the Hounds" movies.
In a jiffy, the training wheels were GONE!

We crossed the street to a parking lot. Grampa ran with the boy, but the boy was nervous and frightened to fall. He had some knee pads on for protection... just in case... But they had been Mommy's when she was in high school and wouldn't stay up on him.


To help hold the knee pads in place, we returned to the condo for old, ripped jeans I packed for the purpose of learning to ride.
Grampa did this for about a half hour or more and Kevin was not "getting" how to balance. Grampa was hungry and went away. I suggested we move to the grass where he wouldn't fear falling. He had a tumble and realized -- this is fun! So he purposely tumbled off the bike in the grass for a while. But, eventually, he stayed on the bike a little bit longer and longer. His confidence was building. He kept saying with each fall, "I'm so bad at this!" I encouraged him to not say that, because he is learning. Just say, "I am so silly!" Grampa returned as he was able to ride a fair distance on the grass. Grampa said he needed to go back to the pavement as it would be much easier now that he has his balance. He went the whole length of the parking lot!!!! We sang, "I think he's got it!" from "My Fair Lady"!!! For the next hour he practiced riding, stopping, turning, steering. He never had a major fall on the pavement. We finally stopped at 10pm. SUCCESS!!!!