Big Wheelin

Yesterday Claire decided she was going to take off her training wheels and ride her big girl bike on two wheels. We tried this once before several months ago and after a few tries and an equal number of crashes, she requested the training wheels back on and vowed to try again "after I'm 5." Well, she's 5.5 and she was ready.

Then she was hesitant- "maybe I can just sit on the seat and lift my feet in the air a few times?" and "maybe you can hold it the whole time?" and "ARE YOU HOLDING IT?!!" and "Cora's in my way!!" (which to be fair, she usually was).

But we discussed the importance of pedaling, hard and fast, and then steering (CLAIRE TURN!!!), and then using our brakes ("but mom, my boots stop me if I jam them into the street"), and then after just a few practice rounds, and a few falls, she put her game face on (me too) and she. was. OFF!

Claire Rides a Bike! from Lag Liv on Vimeo.

As you can tell by my yelling, I was SO proud of her!! She does NOT like to fall or fail and I was so proud she kept getting back on and pedaling again.

And so she rode back and forth across our street for nearly an hour. At full dark we finally had to force her back in.

But she was out again today, now able to start totally on her own, by pushing off the street. SO. PROUD.

And now she can get a new bike for her birthday! She got that one when she turned 3 and now Cora can inherit it for her 3rd birthday a few months later. The hand-me-down cycle continues. Luckily Cora seemed super jealous of Claire's streamers and will likely be thrilled to take on the full bike late next year.

Speaking of Cora, she is quite the pro scooter. I seriously never thought the scooter would be so instant and successful a hit, but a hit it is! She zoomed around for the whole hour we were outside and was very reluctant to bring it up at nightfall. Only the fact that her big kids were doing the same, and she was allowed to park the scooter in the garage all by herself, softened the blow. If a big kid does it, Cora's on board.

Landon practiced his Ripstik. That thing is VERY wobbly and looks really hard, but he had the hang of it.

When he could get it away from his dad anyway.

And I ran around feeling like hell with my bad cold and intense sinus pain and took pictures and a bit of video and LOVED every snap of our family taking up our whole street with our wheelie gang. Kids at play make me happy, and when they're all mine motoring and scootering and biking together, it makes me deliriously so. And that's not just the cold medicine.

James is prepping the kids' NYE dinner (pigs in a blanket, ants on a log, fruit, and cake slices from Central Market) while I try to get close to my usual level of excitement about ours. I love our New Year's traditions and it seems wrong to have a cold when you have delicious meats, cheeses, desserts (4 desserts!), a fantastic bottle of champagne, a new outfit, and a super sexy husband waiting for you after the kids go to bed. I did break down and go to the doctor today when I thought my sinuses would explode, so maybe that steroid shot will kick in right about 8:01 p.m. There's always hope, and if not, there's always next year! I hope you all have a wonderful end to 2015 and fabulous beginning to 2016!