What began in Iowa has taken root in Virginia:
Olaiya is biking!
Now, she's had a bike with training wheels since this past Spring. But whenever she rode, one or the other of her strategically a-bit-off-the-ground training wheels was always pressing the pavement. Lots of lean goin' on. We weren't foreseeing autonomy any time soon.
But when we headed home for Thanksgiving, Grandma and Grandpa had a sweet 12" (i.e. very little) bike for Olaiya to try out. Using Grandpa's patented hold-'em-by-the-scruff technique (I'm sure he's totally the first one ever to do that), Olaiya got a feel for steering and balancing, all the while safely maintaining verticality. And if she ever did feel like she was going down or had over steered, she was all of 12" off the ground and could easily put her feet down. Good progress was made.
When we were back for Christmas, she got some more practice. We gripped less tightly, she garnered confidence. Then when we took our hands off, she unwittingly was doing it!
Let's cut to the tape:
Fast forward to February: After a 45 days hiatus, I was afraid she wouldn't be up for getting back on the (bigger) horse here at home. With her seat as low as it could go and 16" off the ground, we got started...and she didn't want to stop. Today she rode up, then down (we haven't mastered U-turns yet) the street all by herself! Here's to persistence, padded layers, and some warm(ish) winter days, baby.
Today!
And for some peace and parity (and some grandbaby-missing g'parents), here's Naomi's take.
5 comments:
Yay Olaiya! Our girls got 12" bikes for Christmas. Meg can't pedal but I wasn't about to have only ONE bike in our house (or yard) and TWO girls who wanted to ride it! Anyway, Kate can pedal sloooowwwwwlly (I haven't even raised the training wheels even a little). And I think Meg will figure out pedaling in a few months, go faster than fast and I'll take her training wheels off by the end of the summer which will inspire Kate to get it too!
Yay!!! The pictures are beautiful. Isn't Iowa lovely? And I'm so proud of the little pumpkin. A true picture of coming independence! Ride on little sister!
yeah! how fun. and i must say that *you* tara are looking fantastic as always.
Okay -- how cool is it that Olaiya is the oldest grandbaby?!? Did you see that Gentry audience cheering her on? I LOVE it!
Also, loved watching the girls' dresses flapping in the wind. They'll make good mudflaps when spring hits. Awesome.
Great job by the nieces. Who knew that you needed to wear a helmet when riding a tricycle? Good job by her getting back on the horse.
Get some WD40 on that trike!
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