He did it!!

Andrew finally got sick of waiting for Daddy to help him learn to ride his bike and decided to teach himself. Mommy tried to help, but she couldn't run for very long or very fast -- he fell one too many times with mommy. He started at the top of the driveway and rode into the grass. It took him a few tries, but he was finally able to figure out how to push backwards to stop. He ran into the mailbox once, but for the most part he would fall into the grass. While he was practicing, I made him wear his helmet, but he decided that he looked too goofy with the helmet on for the pictures. I told him that as long as he promised to wear the helmet when he was riding, that I would take the pictures without the helmet on -- saftey first!!

He has to concentrate pretty hard to keep everything moving at once. He tended to turn the handle bars whichever direction was the same as the foot he was pushing downward with.

He wanted me to take a little video so that we could show daddy -- Bill is in Florida delivering furniture this week. He will be home tomorrow -- we're both ready for daddy to come home!

After the video, we decided to go for our maiden voyage around the block. The first half was a little rough -- he still tended to turn the handle bars when pedaling. He fell once, but there was no blood, thank goodness, I don't think I would have gotten him back on the bike if there was. Going up the hill was challenging, he was all over the road. The second half of the block was a breeze -- you'd have thought he'd been riding for years. He did great and was so proud of himself.

He wanted to call Grandma Doughty right away -- look Grandpa -- he did it before he turned 8 -- he's got better balance than his mother did ;-) Of course, I took away the training wheels a year and a half ago, before he had a chance to develop the mean lean...