Urban training

Most of the places we lived when I was a child were in the country, so I learned to ride my bike on country roads or long country driveways (and I have the scars on my knees where I fell on gravel rocks to prove it!) But our kids don't yet have that joy, so I'm trying to teach Lukas early how to survive on a bike in the city.

I finally found a child's helmet that fits Lukas' head, and since then he wants to ride his trike a lot more than before. Often when we're playing in the yard in the afternoon, Lukas says, "Lets go for a walk!" which means, "I want to ride my trike on the street!" So Lukas gets his trike and helmet out, and Natalie and I come along with the stroller.

We've branched out from riding "around the block" in our immediate neighborhood, which is very sleepy and has no sidewalks, to riding in the neighborhood a street over, where there are sidewalks and the street is much busier. To get there, we have to cross another fairly busy street, so Lukas is learning to stop when I say stop, stop at streets, cross the street with me, and make sure he can see if there are any cars in the driveways ahead. Today we took a new route (for him on the trike, but one he and I had walked in the stroller many times before) and he really got the hang of slowing down before a driveway to look for cars backing out. A couple times he waved at drivers who were in their cars facing the road and they waved back (he always says, "they waved at me!")

I'm excited that he's learning to be safe at such a young age. Since he's made such great strides in his tricycling ability, Tom and I have talked about when to get him a bicycle. We're thinking that Christmas will be too hectic with a new baby, so maybe for his birthday. I almost hate to get him a bike, though, because he's having so much fun on his trike!