Another Milestone

After moving into a neighborhood swarming with kids on foot, bike, razor, skateboard, ripstik, wagon, big wheel, motorized play car and anything else you can imagine, Elizabeth started bugging me to take the training wheels off her bike.  Somehow she'd always ask at the most inconvenient time like right before dinner or just as we were going out the door, so it took a few weeks before it actually happened.  Brandon probably spent one hour total helping her figure out the gist of it, but then it was through pure determination and trial & error that she got it down.   

There are big milestones in life like birthdays, graduations, and marriage, but life (for kids especially) is really made up of lots and lots of smaller milestones that have just as much - and maybe even more -importance in their lives.  Learning to use the potty, transitioning to a big girl bed, going to kindergarten, learning to read, losing teeth, and mastering a two wheeler - they are all markers of growing up, becoming more independent, and moving one step closer to that magical day when they will be a grown up!  (If they only knew, right?) 

And even though I know it's inevitable, one step closer to being a grown up is one step further away from being my little baby, so it is with bittersweet feelings of pride that I watch my little six-year-old tear around the neighborhood now on her cute little beach cruiser.  

Slow down, Time, slow down!

She was a little (lot) wobbly at first:

But with a little incline she could hold her position for awhile:

Try again . . .

Straighten out . . .

You've got it!

We happen to live in a place that gets a lot of strong wind at times, and it was on one of these blustery days that she was determined to learn to ride that bike with confidence.  I think she did a pretty good job.  

If there's one thing I can say for Elizabeth, it's that she can be pretty determined and persistent when she wants something, and she's not afraid to face her fears and keep trying.  Way to go, Elizabeth!