No Training Wheels

Early in October, Cat decided to ride her bike without training wheels. She had done this once before, but it didn't last for very long; she asked us to put the training wheels on later that day. This time, however, she practiced for about an hour in the driveway, and then she was confident enough to go out in the neighborhood with Ben.

And at the end of the day, she was mostly unscathed. That's because she had a foolproof method of injury-avoidance: ABORT! While she was still in the practice-in-the-driveway phase, she hadn't figured out how to slow herself down with her feet or the brakes, and she wasn't very good at steering and turning, so when a crash was inevitable, she would just jump off of the bike. You see it a little at the end of this video:

But this is a better demonstration:

Cat explained it this way: "You jump off before you fall if you're thinking you're gonna fall. If you feel the bike tip over and you're wobbling, then you gotta jump off and it'll fall down, k? That's how you get safety."

Within one or two weeks, Cat looked like a seasoned bike rider. She could turn and slow down perfectly, and even managed to do figure 8's in the road. Now she and Ben go out on bike rides every chance they get. Sometimes they let Jack tag along in the trailer, or they let me jog with them. But it's usually just the two of them and I love that they have something fun that they enjoy doing together.

PS> I had to include this video because it kind of reminds me of the beginning of The Wonder Years. :-)