Great moments in parenting

Sunday, Spencer and I went down to a parking lot near the house for some bike practice. What she didn't know is that I brought a wrench to take off the training wheels. After many guarantees for her safety, some coaxing and crying, I finally talked her into giving it a whirl. It didn't take long before dad's hands came off the handlebars and she was on her own!

She pedaled unassisted for about a hundred yards yelling "I'm doing it! I'm doing it!". When she finally came to a stop at the end of the parking lot, she had the most excited look I have ever seen on her face and said "Daddy, I really did it!". The look on her face, the excitement in her voice! The whole moment was pure magic and I'll always remember it.

Kids are awesome. Sharing the joy of their accomplishments and watching them learn makes all the craziness worth it.

We worked it some more and she kept getting better and more confident. Won't be long before I can take her on little rides while I pull her brother and sister. Some pics below before we ditched the training wheels




4 comments:

Anonymous said...

congratulations, it was a huge day for me when both of my boys finally let go of the training wheels. I still have one on them but she is a ways away.

Thomas said...

awesome! I'm looking forward to my own future as a parent.

Rachel said...

Cute kid Matt. It is great she got your wife's looks! ;)

Randy Conner said...

I remember when my oldest went without his outriggers for the first time almost 18 years ago. That is one thing a cyclist never forgets. One trick I learned was to have them take their feet off the pedals and don't worry about peddeling. Put them on a gentle slope and let them coast down. They will look where they want to go instead of down when they are not peddeling. Zach did that once and on the next run he put his feet on and peddled back up the hill!