A Boy and His Bike
Ty has been riding his two wheeler for a few weeks. Dad and I got together one Saturday and encouraged Ty to hop on his older cousin’s hand-me-down bicycle. First, we started pushing him in the side yard on the grass. I would throw Ty toward Dad, and Dad would catch Ty – and Ty would be on his bike. It’s not like I was literally throwing him. We kept telling him to pedal. It seems like he wanted the bike to go flying on its own because he wouldn’t pedal; he just looked down at the grass.
We did that for several minutes and called it a day. The next day, Easter Sunday, while my Dad was visiting, Ty hopped on his bike again and we helped him ride up and down the sidewalk. He got the hang of it quickly that time.
After a few days of practice, he was handling the two wheeler as if he’d been riding for a year. He might fall while turning sharply, but that’s rare nowadays.
On Take Your Child to Work Day, Dad and Ty took off on their bikes in the morning to our favorite park, which is nearly three miles away. They sat on the benches and ate their home-prepared trail mix, drank water from their canteens, and walked the nature trail. And they rode back. Of course Ty was tired when they came back (and so was Dad!).
