Last summer G and I decided to buy the little girls balance bikes for their birthdays. This was taken on Pendo’s 3rd birthday.
Feel free to google it if you are interested, but the idea behind the balance bike concept is that the hardest part about learning to ride a bike is learning to balance. A balance bike doesn’t have pedals, so you glide on it by balancing. Both of our little ladies have really taken to their balance bikes, and we knew they were ready to try a real bike this summer.
Long story short(er), one of my friends happened to be getting rid of two 12 inch bikes, the exact size we were looking for. We gratefully brought them home, cleaned them up, adjusted them then waited a couple of days until we had time to work with the girls on learning to ride them.
Rose got to go first since Mommy wanted to take pictures, and Rose is 10 months older. 🙂
Yesterday afternoon we had the time and the beautiful weather, so we gave it a try.
Rose was determined to learn and ready to go!
Look at that smile! She was beyond excited to be practicing with a bike like Kait’s.
Pendo trailed behind on her balance bike, cheering and encouraging Rose like she’s never done before.
In less than 10 minutes (probably closer to five), Rose had it down and was riding on her own!!!!
Amazing! Rose rode her new bike for at least the next hour. She needs to practice starting and stopping on her own a bit more, and the pedals really scratched up her legs as she practiced that, but she can totally ride a bike by herself now! She never needed training wheels, thanks to the balance bike. By the way, she’s only 4 1/2 years old. I still cannot believe she can ride without training wheels.
Way to go – girl !!!!!! Grandpa and Grandma are proud of you. oxoxoxox
The smile on her face in the last picture is you all the way, Mama!!