Biker Ben

Ben has conquered his fear of riding a "big-kid" bike! Early in the summer he fell off of his training wheel bike and really scraped up his knees. After that he would only ride his tricycle, even though the friend he plays with outside (who is a year younger) rode a "big-kid" bike with training wheels. I felt kind of sad for Ben, even though he always had fun . . . and he could go REALLY fast on his tricycle. I would ask him if he wanted to practice on his big bike, but every time he'd say no. Mom even bought Ben a new helmet and some knee/elbow pads, but he would only wear them for a few minutes, and when I could coax him to ride the big bike, he'd go as slowly as possible around the parking lot--and only once around each time. Then yesterday evening we heard kids riding bikes outside, and out of the blue, Ben said, "I want to practice on my big bike." I had him repeat himself at least three times so I could be sure I was understanding correctly, then we went out and he started to ride. And then this morning, even though it was raining, he wanted to go out and "practice" again! He was riding faster and faster, up curbs, down curbs . . . and then he asked, "Can we take the little wheels off now?" I told him we'll have to save that for another day. . . .