After Elaina learned to ride a bike without training wheels, Gabriella and I were very excited to get her to do it as well. We were a little too busy during the week to put some serious work into it, so we went out on Saturday evening to get Gabriella to ride on her own. I expected us to be there an hour or so, with the hopes that maybe she would get pretty close… we were there about a minute before she was riding on her own.
And that is seriously how long it took. With a little bit of a push start, she rode for about ten seconds by herself, without even realizing that I had left her side. After that, it was easy, and she never looked back.
She had a few stumbles later in the day and she still has to work on starting under her own power, but Gabriella can ride on her own. I am very proud of her for being brave and trusting me enough to teach her. I am also very proud of Elaina, who was giving her constant encouragement on how her progress was coming along.
So was getting so good in fact that I had to get her to slow down a few times, as I was really worried that she would not turn fast enough and do a little off-roading. Thankfully, she got really good at slowing down and stopping on her own, so crisis was averted.
So for the rest of the hour, they just rode around the track together, which was nice and relaxing. Unless they crashed into one another, which they thankfully avoided, they were socially distanced on their own bikes and had zero reason to fight with one another. Yep, really starting to love this whole biking thing. Another milestone hit by one of my girls, with a few more tears coming out from me. Definitely a reason to celebrate, even though they are still growing up just too darn fast.
Since the country seems to be running low on bikes, it looked like I was not going to be getting one until late March at the earliest. Our local bike shop, M&M Cycling, called me about an hour after my visit to let me know that someone was selling a bike eerily similar to what I was inquiring about. I went back, took it for a test ride, and it was a perfect fit for what I needed. So, now that the girls can both ride and I have a bike, look out for the Calkins Family on the road, because we will definitely be out riding on Fort Huachuca.
Thanks for checking in on us.
Cheers!
Adventures in Single Dadding 