Rollin'!

Today the girls wanted to ride their bikes, so I took them out to the college parking lot, which is a great place to ride because it is HUGE and flat and on the weekend, totally deserted.  On the way to the car Anja asked if she could learn to ride without training wheels today.  I tried to hide my sigh.  I am totally incompetent when it comes to teaching a kid to ride without training wheels.  I tried with Elise for two summers and failed miserably, we just ended up arguing about how to do it.  We lucked out when our friend, Andrew, came up for a visit last summer.  He had the temperment (patient) and experience (motocross racer) to get Elise riding without training wheels within a couple of days.

As we got ready to go, I tried to talk Anja into postponing her attempt until we got to Virginia, but she shot that down immediately.  So, we got out there and I took off the training wheels.  She asked me if I had the video camera with and I said "no, honey, it will probably take a few days before you are riding by yourself."  She started by just sitting on the seat and scooting herself around with her feet.  The I ran along side and balanced her while she pedaled.  She felt pretty solid, and was not scared when she lost her balance, just got on the seat and started going again.  Within and couple of minutes, I was just holding onto the back of her shirt to grab her in case she started to fall.  After about 10 minutes I called and asked my mom to bring out the video camera because I was pretty certain she would be riding on her own any minute.  So, after about 10 minutes of practice and help, Anja had it!

You can see a video of the big moment here:  going solo.