Bike Tales, Part Two
And if you thought one new bike was enough...
You would be wrong.
Peter's fourth birthday brought him that amazing hand-me-down motorcycle AND a thrifted two wheel bike with pedals!!
He's been riding his balance bike for about a year now and had become very attached to it. Very attached. Then grandpa and daddy got him this $5 gem of a rusty pedal bike {which has a lot of potential, by the way} and started calling his balance bike "Ezra's bike". Harsh.
So, as you can probably imagine, we've been having some parenting challenges regarding the afor-mentioned motorcycle and how often Peter should be allowed to ride it {and how far}. Yesterday was an especially hard day with arguing and fit-throwing when asked to come inside.
Daddy's smart strategy was -- "your motorcycle is having a time out until you can ride your pedal bike {using the pedals} to the mailboxes and back".
OK. Totally willing to do that. He jumped on...needed just a minute of stabilization to get those feet on the pedals...a teeny bit of a push from mommy...and he's off. That easy.
Amazing what a little bribery will do.
Now he takes turns -- a few laps with the motorcycle, then a few laps with the pedal bike. He's such a happy camper. He knows his physical boundaries, he knows he'll lose "wheel" privileges if he doesn't come inside when it's time, he's even mentioned helping his little brother learn to ride when he gets big enough.
We've come a long ways in just a day.
And I couldn't love you more than I do. Doo-doo.
Good job, baby.
You would be wrong.
Peter's fourth birthday brought him that amazing hand-me-down motorcycle AND a thrifted two wheel bike with pedals!!
He's been riding his balance bike for about a year now and had become very attached to it. Very attached. Then grandpa and daddy got him this $5 gem of a rusty pedal bike {which has a lot of potential, by the way} and started calling his balance bike "Ezra's bike". Harsh.
So, as you can probably imagine, we've been having some parenting challenges regarding the afor-mentioned motorcycle and how often Peter should be allowed to ride it {and how far}. Yesterday was an especially hard day with arguing and fit-throwing when asked to come inside.
Daddy's smart strategy was -- "your motorcycle is having a time out until you can ride your pedal bike {using the pedals} to the mailboxes and back".
OK. Totally willing to do that. He jumped on...needed just a minute of stabilization to get those feet on the pedals...a teeny bit of a push from mommy...and he's off. That easy.
Amazing what a little bribery will do.
Now he takes turns -- a few laps with the motorcycle, then a few laps with the pedal bike. He's such a happy camper. He knows his physical boundaries, he knows he'll lose "wheel" privileges if he doesn't come inside when it's time, he's even mentioned helping his little brother learn to ride when he gets big enough.
We've come a long ways in just a day.
And I couldn't love you more than I do. Doo-doo.
Good job, baby.