Back to Bikin'

As Jensine noted in a previous post, with the warmer weather, the boys and I are taking full advantage of the opportunity to be out riding our bikes. Isaac has moved up to a larger bike and Austin has moved up to Isaac's old bike. Cameron has also moved on to Austin's old bike, but is still working on the whole "pedaling" idea.

Isaac has, of course, been without training wheels since last summer and continues to amaze me with how well he rides, as he continues to absolutely dust his brother Austin (something Austin finds disparaging). 

Austin has been riding with his training wheels up as high as they go and doing pretty well. Most of his crashes have actually been from when the training wheels imbalance him. About a month ago--May 16th to be exact--I took the training wheels off of his bike and worked a little with him. It did not go so well. He actually did alright, but was so scared every time I let go that he would put on his brakes and fall over. I had to run behind him with my hands as the ready and he would go for maybe 50 yards.

Since that time, I haven't worked too much with him, deciding to let him ride with training wheels for a little longer. Late last week, however, I took up practicing with him some more and the improvement, after less than a month, was incredible. He has way more confidence than before and yesterday he took off and I stopped running behind him.

He still needs to work on starting and stopping--something that is difficult when your legs don't quite reach the ground, even with the seat completely lowered--but he is doing so well that they are off for good. We rode for about 2 miles yesterday and about the same again today. He is loving it and has far more confidence than before.

Way to go Austin!!!

P.S. - Cameron, of course, still loves to sit in the trailer and, at the mention of a bike ride, will go out in the garage, climb in the trailer, buckle up, and patiently wait for the rest of us. Very cute.