The Business of Baby

We were unable to use the long weekend to hone Beanie's cycling without training-wheels since it was incredibly hot. Instead, we used it to do some organization around the house.

This weekend we went practice cycling without training wheels!

We were not planning to start this weekend. In fact. I had planned a final bike ride with training wheels, but Beanie was keen to take them off, so I acquiesced.

We went to Beanie's school parking lot since its flat and there is a lot of space to practice.

Last year I had seen YouTube video on how to teach a kid to ride without training wheels, Basically you take the training wheels AND pedals off, and let them use their legs to move the bike and learn to glide. Sort of like Strider bikes (which we never used) but follow the same concept.

So, off we went with Beanie padded up with all her gear - helmet, of course, plus knee/hand/elbow pads, plus long pants and shirt.

At first of course it was difficult for her to handle the bike even when sitting on it and moving with her legs. But within about 10-15 min she figured out how to handle the weight and keep the bars straight. Soon she was able to move faster and by the end of 40 min was able to do tiny glides.

On Sunday, she wanted to try again so back we went. This time she was much more confident when walking the bike with her feet. The bike was straight and she had more control over it.

The parking lot  has a really gentle slope . She would sit on the bike and walk it up the length of the car park and then the very slight incline made the bike roll down gently and helped her practice rolling/gliding down. I could tell that she was getting a bit frustrated, since after a few seconds of gliding the bike would tip over.

I told her to relax and have fun!  It was a lovely sunny day with a nice breeze. I also told her that it will happen very quickly, one minute she will be trying and then bang she will get it

I think that helped and she started to have fun....and within about 10 min she was gliding -- feet off the ground across the parking lot!

It was amazing!

Basically between the Day 1 and Day 2 it had been less than an hour and my baby could balance a bike!

Soon she was confidently going all the way across the huge parking lot, and being about to weave and move the cycle this way and that way, with her feet off the ground.

I was so proud of her and she was so proud of herself!!

She did fall one time. That was because she did not stop the bike in time and while the bike slowed it was not fully stopped when it hit the curb at the other end. She got a tiny scrape on her leg since she had INSISTED on wearing cropped pants that day. Well, she has since figured out why I wanted her to wear long pants...oh well.

This coming weekend, we will pick up where we left off. We will practice more gliding without the pedals and then maybe the next day add the pedals in.

I expect by June she will be cycling like a big girl!!

We had a very productive weekend.

I cleaned out the garage! It was a big job and one I had been procrastinating on. Over the past few months it became a dumping ground for stuff and was beginning to cause me anxiety.

I missed my Dad since we had planned to do it together this Spring.  As my Dad recommended, my Mom, Beanie and I took everything out of the garage, went through each box and suitcase and re-organized it all, including donating a bunch of stuff. We had a nice breakfast at McD to keep us satiated and started at 10am, finishing by 2pm. We then relaxed for a bit and went to lunch after which we dropped off the donations. It was best to do it that way so we would not change our mind :-)

Today Beanie and I took all the boxes to the recycling place. I have recycling pick up at home, but I know I will be busy this week and may not have time to lug everything down the driveway. Now its done. We also were having small electronic recycling at our city, so I got rid of some old fitbits, oven, hairdryer etc.

In other updates....

Beanie was sick the latter part of the week with Strep!  She woke on Thursday complaining of a sore throat. She had about 99.5 temp. I debated and then decided to keep her home.  Good decision, because despite Tylenol I gave her at 7am,  by 12pm her fever rose to 100.5. Her throat still hurt and the school receptionist had mentioned that AM that some kids were down with strep in school. So I took her to her ped, and yep she had strep. First time ever!  He said she was the 4th kids to test positive that day, just among his patients alone!  So she started Amox that evening. Poor thing fell asleep on the cough at 6:30pm and slept 12 hrs straight. I carried her up at about 9pm . She woke fresh with no fever and no pain, and has been fine since Friday...thank goodness. I have been okay too.

We took a quick weekend trip to Virginia a couple of weeks ago to attend the 90th birthday celebration of my Dad's older sister. She did not want to have a party since she was very close to my Dad ...but her grand kids wanted to do something and I know my Dad would have wanted this milestone celebrated. We were supposed to fly on Friday but there we terrible storms, so we decided to go Sat AM. My sis was on the Sat AM flight too, so it was nice. The party was good but very emotional since everyone mentioned my Dad. I broke down in tears at one point, so did my Mom. But it was nice meeting my older aunt, also my other aunt who is younger than my Dad. Beanie met all her second cousins and had a great time. Being an only child I want to encourage her to become familiar with the extended family, especially the kids who are around her age.

On Wed, Beanie came home with a note. The teacher puts a smiley face sticker on each day of the week if a child behaves. Beanie has got a smiley face every single day since the beginning of school. I was just thinking earlier in the week that if she gets through a whole year with only smiley faces then I will get her a special gift. Anyway, on Wed her smiley face got taken away and a note was sent home. We had dance that day so I did not look at her folder when we came home from school. On the way back from dance, she bursts into tears in the car, and finally I get to understand that her smiley face was taken away. When we came home, I read the note which said "fighting with another child to be last in line".  Fighting - lol...bit dramatic!!  From what Beanie explained it happened during a fire drill and they were standing in line and she wanted to be last so when they turned around she would be line leader. Another boy was behind her and they were arguing about who will be last. Given it was a fire drill I understand why the teacher was not pleased. Anyway, poor Beanie was mortified about it all. I gave her a hug and told her that I was not upset, but that its important to listen to instructions and to be safe during drills. Also, I know that she knows better so we will not discuss it anymore.

I have been able to plant spring flowers, The yard is looking nice. The air smells of honeysuckle and jasmine. Such a lovely time of the year.

Makes me miss my Dad even more, but I know he is watching over us. I hear his voice in my head, guiding me. The other day one of my door locks got stuck. When I finally got it unstuck, I could literally hear him telling me to put WD40 in the lock. So, I grabbed the can he had got for me, sprayed it and voila it was fixed!!   I know he would have been proud!