There she goes!

Well, Faith has been getting around the neighborhood quite well on the $5 thrift store bike with training wheels that we bought her over a year ago. At first she could barely pedal the thing, and we thought it was because the bike was too junky to ride smoothly. But after awhile, she became quite speedy. So either she got used to it, or she pushed beyond its limitations.

Enter hand me down bike without training wheels that was donated a couple months ago by a neighbor. Wednesday evening I was sitting on the curb watching the kids ride around the cul-de-sac when a little neighbor girl told me how she just learned to ride without training wheels the day before.

I decided that Faith might as well give it a try (despite the late bloomers that her older sister and brother were when it came to bicycling.) Knowing the odds were against me, I pulled the bike out and told Faith it was time. I was a bit concerned about my endurance-- could I, in my less than stellar physical condition and my chunky flip flops, keep up with Faith long enough to get her started? All worries proved to be unnecessary. I held on to the back of her seat with my right hand and her left handle bar with my left. I took a couple of steps in synch with her pedaling and could feel that she was already balanced. I let go... and she was off. It was the easiest thing! She just kept goin' until she ran out of road and then went up into a driveway and into the grass to stop.

Like I said, that part was too easy. I'm guessing that perhaps the $5 trainer was a a bit off kilter and compelled her to learn to balance long ago in order to pick up speed, because truly she was a natural. Now, we just need to work on her starting off on her own. And if she let anyone other than me get her started, perhaps I would have caught the proud surprise that was surely on her face. (She can't turn around yet either.)