Bicycling buddies

I took the day off from work yesterday to help Kris out as she recovered from her marathon the day before. One of the highlights of the day was some time I spent with Nolan.

For a long time, mom had this small, blue BMX kids’ bike collecting dust in her garage. She originally picked it up at a garage sale for my nephew Louis to use when he was visiting her house. But it never got much use. This year, for Nolan’s fourth birthday, she wanted to have it cleaned up and have some training wheels put on it and give it to him.

Actually, I was the one who cleaned it up and put the training wheels on. Mom gave it to Nolan, but he wasn’t that interested in it. The truth is, he only just this year started using the Radio Flyer tricycle she bought him for his second birthday. He tried the bicycle, but had a hard time figuring out how to make it move forward and quickly got frustrated. Given the choice, he always preferred the tricycle, and I didn’t want to force the issue at this point. I wanted bicycling to be a very positive experience for him.

Then about a week ago he was riding his tricycle as Kris walked Chester and pushed Thomas in the stroller, and he kept falling over. Kris explained that he was starting to get too big for his tricycle (something I had told him before). Just like that, he declared he wanted to go home and try his blue bike. By the time I got home from work that night, he couldn’t wait to take me outside and show me how he could do laps around the patio. Now when it’s time to walk the dog, he’s always excited to ride along on his bike. He just needed it to be his idea.

Which brings us to yesterday. For the first time, we went for a bike ride together. No dog. No baby brother. No mommy. Just the two of us pedaling around the neighborhood. It was so much fun!

At the end of the day I always ask Nolan what his favorite part of the day was. We had gone out to dinner that night, so he said the restaurant was his favorite. But make no mistake, I told him my favorite part was our little bike ride.