Cleaning out the garage, I got on Camille's bicycle to see if it's rideable. You can ride it, but with the training wheels, which she says make the bike "tippy" it takes a whole street width to make a u-turn. "It's harder with the training wheels," we decided. But she is a modern kid who is only allowed to ride when and where we can see her, so she hasn't put in as much time on a bike as any of us did when we were learning to ride. I haven't been sure she would ever learn to ride a bike, she might be like my grandmother who won turn-of-the-century auto races, but never learned to ride a bike. Next thing I notice she is having our neighbor remove the training wheels and she and their daughter are goofing around on their bikes. Then Camille goes riding down the sidewalk without training wheels! I run and get the camera.
Stefan announces that his miniature bike "Cherry" is tippy, and he wants the training wheels off. "You have to pedal fast, that's what makes you balance," I tell him. He nods, staring straight ahead like an Olympian listening to his coach. I held onto the back of his teeny bike, he pedaled his four-year-old legs fast, and took off.
So it was a big day for me.
