Riding a Bike.

Look at my big 3 year old riding his bike! We spent the afternoon out on the driveway yesterday, walking back and forth, hanging out with our friend Alice when Tim and Tully thought it a great idea to take away the training wheels. We watched with amazement as my little boy pedaled away with courage and confidence.

With this natural ability, however, comes a great impatience with the time it takes to really learn things. Every so often, Tully would fall off, Tim would catch him, and he'd sigh disappointedly and walk off in frustration. Tim would call him back, explain that there's lots of falling off in the beginning, that it's good to be patient with ourselves when we're learning new things, and that he was doing really well. Tully would wipe off his tears on his shirt, hop back on and go again.

But soon it was one crash too many. Despite our best efforts to encourage him, Tully walked off, telling us he was no good at it and we should put the training wheels back on.

I was so sad for him. He'd had such great success and hadn't seen it. But I also watched, knowing that I was the same with myself. I give myself such a hard time for silly fabric purchasing decisions, for not being firmer when at my local fabric store, they cut the wrong wadding (batting) for me recently, for trying new things that don't go to plan, and in the past, for immature relationship decisions. Maybe, I thought, I could start to see life a bit more like trying to ride a bike. That while learning there'll be lots of falling over. That it's all part of the experience.

Anyway, this morning, Tim gently suggested to Tully that they head to the uni where there's more open space (and everyone's on holidays still) to try to ride again. He agreed. I'm so glad he did. He came home ever so proudly and showed me this:


Check out that dismount! Perfect!