bikes!

I've been asking DH to take the boys out to the school nearby and practice riding their bikes without training wheels. So a couple of hours after DH finally rolled out of bed this AFTERNOON (when is my lie-in?), I tried to kick them all out. By then, the Toddler was up from her nap and wanted to go, too. I figured that someone would need to watch her while someone else watched the boys ride, so it was a whole-family thing instead of me getting a break.

So the boys walked their bikes all the way down there and tried a bit and tried some more. DH held them up a bit, but mostly just let them go.

DS1 (the one who just turned 10) keeps hitting the brakes and putting his feet down and his knees flail out wide and so on. He was doing pretty well, but then wasn't getting anywhere at all, so he finally took a break and when he went back to it, he could go the length of the parking lot, including bumping over the speed bump.

DS2 (who is 7 1/2) tends to put his feet down as well and swerve all over the place, but he just kept going and going and managed to do the length of the parking lot a few times, including once where he went down and did a slow circle and came back. Wow!

They (and I) didn't feel confident enough in their abilities to keep going in a straight line or to go uphill for them to ride their bikes home, so we walked back.

So the Toddler had fun flinging herself down the slides in the Kindergarten play area and the boys are getting the hang of it. I'm trying to think of a safe place for them to ride tomorrow when that school we were practicing at starts up and we're still on vacation. DS1's bike doesn't really fit in the trunk - even if it did, I don't think both bikes would fit, anyway.

And yes, it was nice going for a walk with them. I had already done a good bit of writing and passed the 90K mark. A character caught the flu, which I hadn't planned on. Not that people generally plan to catch the flu, but you know...