24 hours later

I can't help myself. This is just one of those prideful parenthood moments. The video I posted yesterday was taken after dinner, around 7 p.m. and it was Sawyer's first solo ride after just one week of owning his new 14-inch Tony Hawk Freestyle Climber (in green). He spent most of the first week looking at the bike. Thinking about the bike. Talking about the bike.But not riding the bike. He was pretty intimidated by the size, the gears, the handbrakes and the peddles, I guess. The break-through, for some reason, came when I told him it was a dirt bike. A switch flipped inside of him and suddenly he was all: "We're going to do this thing." This video was taken after dinner this evening. So, it's 24 hours of improvement right before your eyes.

We initially told Sawyer that we'd get him a bike for his birthday, but when I realized that the summer would be more than half-over by then (and realizing just how short a Northern Colorado summer can be), I decided to bite the bullet and do it now. Sawyer's only request for his new bike was that it be green. It's hard, when bike shopping on a budget, to find bikes that aren't plastered with Barbie and Spiderman. As we were looking around, we debated whether to get a 12-inch or 14-inch bike. (14-inch bikes are very rare. The 16 is clearly too big for a 3-year-old, and we were worried that he'd outgrow and outride the 12-inch too quickly.) He does have to tip toe to touch the ground, but he was used to that since we kept moving the seat on his training bike up. And, it definitely doesn't seem to be slowing him down.

Bike riding appears to be Sawyer's "Thing." He's tentative on a lot of fronts, but he's always been really, really into his riding toys. (Go figure that his dad was a professional motocross racer in his early 20s.) It also helps, I will add, that we have a lot of unused pavement in our neighborhood, giving Sawyer some freedom and room to learn.

I, myself, recall learning to ride on a somewhat hilly but low-traffic suburban street around the block from my house. I think I was closer to 6-years-old at the time. I can actually remember the sensation of riding alone for the first time and the total freedom of being able to bike to my friends' houses.

I can't even begin to imagine the sense of independence it gives a 3-year-old. It's actually somewhat terrifying.