Well, we survived. All of us. Saturday was a beautiful day – a perfect first ever bike-riding day. We took the kiddos, helmets and bike and tryke to the elementary school where there’s a nice flat courtyard (and cool playground). Matthew hopped up on that bike like he’d been doing it his whole life. He road around like a pro for…two minutes. And then he was done. He wanted to play on the playground. Thankfully, the bike hadn’t actually lost its novelty and he continued getting on, riding around for a bit and then taking a play break. All four of us went down into the soccer field where Mike found a flat recess ball that we kicked around. Talk about the difference in our boys’ personalities: after about five minutes of playing with the ball, Matthew had lost interest and had found a fantastic stick with which he dug in the dirt. Zachary, on the other hand, is a little soccer pro and zipped up and down the field, kicking the ball like I’ve never seen a not-yet-two-year-old kick a ball! I think he would’ve run and kicked for hours had daddy not gotten a little too excited and kicked the ball too hard…over the fence.

We’ve kept the bike/trykes in the trunk of the car, so yesterday after preschool I took the boys to a park that has a nice flat trail around it. Matthew was, again, riding like a champ – which was a good thing as I was busy helping Zach with the tricycle. (He can’t actually quite reach the pedals yet, so we have to push him along while he kicks back and sits in luxury and laziness). Matthew was riding towards the playground. I don’t know if he couldn’t/didn’t slow down due to the path being a slight decline or if he meant to do it, but he went straight over the curb down into the play area. It was definitely his first major nasty spill. Thankfully, he landed in the wood play chips, so it was a really soft landing considering. It freaked him out though. But we played for a while and when we started turning blue (it was SO cold and windy!), I announced that we were going to ride around the loop (the long way) back to our car. Matthew hopped right back on, no fear, and did awesome. There was an older gentleman walking along the trail as we neared our car and I looked back and saw Matthew grinning at him from ear to ear. When we were heading home, Matthew announced, “that man got to see my new bike. I think he really liked it ‘cuz it’s really cool.” I asked him if he was proud of himself for riding after falling off, etc. and he said, “Yep, I sure am. Yes, indeed.”