Growth Spurt

This past weekend Charlie had a pretty big growth spurt. Last summer he got a bike, but never did anything with it (very much frustrating his mom and dad). He would climb up and try to pedal for a minute and then promptly declare that he was done. So, the bike went into the attic space for a long winter's nap.

In the middle of last week Charlie declared out of nowhere, "I want to ride my bike." I promptly told him, "Okay, we'll get it out and go for ride." I was really in no hury to climb back into the attic above the garage and get the bike down for a minute's "ride", so the bike stayed put until this weekend when Charlie persisted in his desire.

During this weekend's first effort, Charlie got on his bike and tried to pedal. He did this for longer than just one minute, which I thought was a big step forward just by itself. I started to just push him around so that he could get the hang of steering. He did this for about another minute before declaring that he was done. I was prepared to be content with that, so we started to just goof around. I rode Charlie's bike myself and even let him push me around. There is no video of that (luckily), but our neighbor Dave told me he watched from his living room.

A few hours later, Charlie told me he wanted to go again. This time, out of nowhere, Charlie started pedalling by himself, I was only helping him get started periodically. He wasn't great at steering, but it didn't take long before he could navigate around the cul-de-sac on the sidewalk and make corrections in his trajectory. By Sunday afternoon, he was a pro going around our cul-de-sac and up the block around the next cul-de-sac before heading home. Watch the videos below and see what you think. Dad's thinking it will be a fun summer taking bike rides with Charlie leading the way and Daniel and Ana in the trailer.

Extra Bonus: Daniel was along for the ride and he is getting very vocal, enjoy his side commentary about juice, getting down and saying "Hi!".