I Totally Knew She Could Do It

We've hit another milestone today! Well, at least Akiko has.

Akiko can ride a bike without training wheels!

So, here's the thing: she's had this little princess bike for, like, ever. I think we bought it for her when she was about two and a half. So, yeah, we've had it for a while.

Anyway, it's a toddler bike, so it's got training wheels. For the last several months, Joseph and I have been trying to convince her to get rid of the training wheels and we have always been met with screaming resistance on the subject.

I could tell Akiko really did want to take them off, because one by one, her friends have been getting rid of theirs, but she would not let us do it. Joseph did, at one point, but... I'm not going to go there. So they went back on.

For several weeks, the subject had been dropped. Akiko got a scooter for her birthday that she rides to and from school daily. Her bike gets hardly any play time now unless one of her friends is over.

Well, this afternoon, we were over at her best friend's house because I had some things to talk about with her mom (we're doing another summer camp together this year, so stay tuned on that subject).  We sent all the kids outside to play so we could talk. Kids wander in (there were 13 kids over at the house, not including the babies) while moms usher them back out.

While I sat on the floor, entertaining Asher, I saw Akiko ride past the door on her friend's bike, park it and come in. "Hey Mom! I can ride H's bike all by myself without training wheels and without falling!"

"Really?" I ask, half excited and half exasperated while thinking, I knew she could do it. I just knew it! She just needed to get over whatever it was that was holding her back. 

So, it never really was that moment where one of us is holding the bike steady as she wobbly steers her bike down the street and then we let go and cheer her on. No, it was just a Hey! I guess I could do it all along moment for her.

I'm really excited and proud of her, but I also want to shrug my shoulders, throw up my hands and sigh because all that fighting over the stupid training wheels was so not worth it. The moment was also a bit anti-climatic.

I am excited, though, that we can go on family bike rides and pull the boys in the trailer. But that will only happen once we get Akiko a bigger bike and get rid of that darn toddler bike.

Quote from Akiko just moments ago:

"Mom, I'm totally excited for you to take off my training wheels. It's so much funner to ride my bike without them."

I guess I better get to it!