ST Jr. Solos

As I mentioned, I have a son-Steven Jr. He is now 3 years and 10 months old. Today after work, I picked up ST2 at the day school. On the way home, we usually discuss what we are going to do before dark. Usually we go practice soccer, or we go to a playground, go for a hike, or we go ride bikes. We had planned to get in one more day of soccer drills, before his first game on Saturday, but he changed his mind and wanted to ride instead. I'll write more about him later, because as I was writing this, I went off on a tangent about parenting, my relationship with my son, what we do together, etc. But..that stuff isnt the point of this post, so I've saved it for some other day.

I took the training wheels off his bike about 4 months ago and he didn't quite get it. Had I pushed him a bit more, he likely would have figured it out, but we put them back on. About one month ago, it occurred to me one day that he was ready to have them removed for good, and he had asked about removing them again and so I made a note to take them off next ride. For a variety of reasons we have ridden very little in the last month, but today he wanted to ride, and he asked me to take the training wheels off.

So when we got home, I unbolted the training wheels, he donned his helmet, and swung a leg over with his normal high level of confidence. He just up and started riding on his own, as if he had been doing it all summer. I only gave him a slight push down the driveway and that was it -he was gone. I remember clear as day my first day solo on a bike, with my dad. The scene was very much the same with ST2 today so it was a cool moment for me, and one I had looked forward to for a long time. Its a sort of milestone day for a dad I suppose.

Anyhow, he wanted to ride long today so he asked me to get my MTB and ride with him around. We rode up and down the street, over to the elementary school, and all around there and as it got dark we aimed back home. Much the same as so many other rides we have done together except today without help! He was jumping curbs, sprinting out of the saddle, skidding, making zoomy-zoom motorcycle sounds, all the normal kid stuff - and all with a huge smile. He picked it up so fast that I started to second-guess my earlier decision to put the training wheels back on after our first attempt at soloing, 4 months ago - and that maybe I gipped him out of an entire summer solo. But no...today was a good day for it. He needed the training wheels off, and he knew it...it was his idea today, not mine. When we got home he wanted to share it with his mom, so we called her and he explained what we did. He was very happy today and I hope he remembers it for a long long time. I took some pictures - I'll post one later on.

Definately the ride today with my son was the highlight of my week so far..it beats the crap out of a suck-ass stressful day at the firm. It is a day like today when I think more and more about bailing the corporate slave gig and turning MileHigh CycleSport into a viable supporting business. Thats another topic for another day.

Thanks for reading.