Maile Girl on Two Wheels

by Papa K on April 17, 2016

When people ask me about raising our girls in a big city like San Francisco, I always tell them that its been wonderful, much better and easier than I expected, with one big BUT. And the big BUT has been that I’ve felt that its been a lot harder to teach the girls (and Maile in particular) how to ride her bike. Can’t really just head right out the door as the streets are quite busy. And so I’ve felt like I’ve been failing in one of my “father duties” in making sure Maile could ride her bike.

This all changed a few weeks ago – Maile started asking directly for me to help her learn so we made a concerted effort to take the bike out, take the training wheels off, and go find a place nearby that we could practice on. Turns out there is a big church right diagonal from us that has a pretty big open space that is perfect.

Very tentative early attempts... (look at the concentration though!)

Very tentative early attempts... (look at the concentration though!)

Maile was very nervous, but to her credit despite the fear and the tears, she kept working at it. I’m proud of her often, but I was particularly proud of her through this effort. It was really hard. We went out a couple weekends in a row and all of a sudden on the fourth outing, it all just clicked and she’s now a full-fledged no training wheel rider!

Pretty cool place to learn how to ride your bike...

Pretty cool place to learn how to ride your bike...

Here’s a video of our first outing…

And here she is on Saturday…

As for Lauren, she is incredible on her little scoot bike – she whips around on that thing like crazy. Since Maile was learning something new, I taught Lauren how to ride and lift her feet up so she could glide a bit. She too nailed it pretty quick and was gliding all over in no time. I have a feeling she’ll be on the pedal bike soon enough chasing after her big sister.

Maile Girl, No Training Wheel Bike Rider

Maile Girl, No Training Wheel Bike Rider

Lauren, Gliding Maniac

Lauren, Gliding Maniac

(Click here for the first video.)
(Click here for the second video.)

Previous post:

Next post: