Raina bikes!

Raina has been working on riding a bike for quite a while. She first got her bike from Gary and LaVerne's neighbors in the spring of 2009. We fit it with training wheels anticipating she could figure biking out in no time. She was a bit hesitant at first, but pretty soon she was quite happy to ride on her bike although she had a major preference to lean on one of the training wheels which effectively made it a tricycle.





Two years later we got frustrated with the training wheels and pulled them off. We took Raina to the Ross school parking lot and tried to teach her to ride. No luck, Raina struggled to balance and was generally scared to ride on her own. However it had become the standard this spring for Raina and Lola to come home from school and play outside. The most common activity was for Raina to ride her bike around the driveway and for Lola to scoot around on her big wheel (legs are a tad short to reach the pedals). With the training wheels off, Raina was forced to ride unassisted. Really what this meant was that she sat on the bike and walked it around. The space is too small to really ride a bike. But after a week or so, she showed that she could glide for a few seconds. It was time to go to the Ross again.


She waddled her bike up to the lot and positioned for her first run. She kicked the ground a couple times to give herself a little speed (just like on our driveway) and stepped on the pedals reeling off 5 pedal strokes before needing to steady herself. After 3 or 4 more times like that she was off and away biking around the whole parking lot without stopping! Raina wished her mom could see it - which was a wish I was able to grant with my trusty rusty cell phone. Even more I was able to catch Krystal walking onto the playground . . . I'll try to post the video later, it is taking forever!!



Next up: bike around Creve Coeur Lake Park!