Riding Solo

Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 - Tipton is officially a Big Kid. He is now riding his bike with no training wheels and no "handle bar" on the back. He is riding on two-wheels, solo.

Monday evening Lilli and I went for a bike ride while Tipton played a video game with Daddy. Lilli and I discovered a new, really cool playground. When we got home I told Tipton about it, and said that when he could ride his bike by himself (without Daddy needing to 'get him started') then we could ride our bikes to the new playground. That did it. The next evening he was riding by himself. And we rode our bikes to the new playground. He did really well, too...

He walked his bike down the first big hill (Daddy walked it up the big hill.) But the second hill he rode down (and then up.) On the way home from the playground he almost had an accident. He and Daddy were talking about gravity. And Tipton said "Gravity is what makes you stick down, like this - " and he took his left hand off his handlebars and raised it into the air and then slammed it back down on the handlebar. And almost fell off his bike. He had a nice recovery, though. He wobbled a bit and managed to stop about half an inch from a light post. Both funny and frightening at the same time. The rest of the way home Daddy stressed the importance of not taking your hands off the handlebars while riding your bike...

And of course, I have no pictures of Tipton riding solo. He goes so fast on his bike, they would just be blurry anyway (if I could even capture him in the frame.) He is now all about riding his bike, though. Whenever I say "It's time to go!" He says "On our bikes?" Yesterday afternoon we rode our bikes to a nearby playground. I didn't want to stray too far from home, because I knew it was going to rain. And sure enough, it did. About 20 minutes on the playground, then we rode our bikes home in the rain.

I am going to have to plan more errands to be run on our bikes. If only it would stop raining...