Bikes and Poetry

After too many busy weekends, we were finally able to go out on Saturday to pick up Henry's new birthday bike (thanks Nana and Papa!). Henry picked out a gloriously bright green one. At least you can see him coming from a distance. The big news is that we are now sans training wheels! Yes, a process that we really should have done last summer (but I will blame baby fog) started today - we are teaching Henry to ride his two wheeler!

Here he is - well outfitted in safety gear and ready to start!



We started slow, having him kind of walk his bike while sitting on it, and practicing putting his foot down when he tipped.



He soon got bored and wanted to stop, so I decided to go whole hog and go for the "run while holding on, let go, and pray" method. He did great!! (no photos since I somehow was the one doing the running and pushing). As long as Henry was going in a straight line he could balance and ride. It was so fun to see! Slowing down and any sort of turning....not so great yet (by the way, this is where one of the few drawbacks to city living is evident. There are no quiet cul de sacs to practice on. Instead you go to a park filled with young children and oblivious parents and hope to God you don't run over any unsuspecting citizens. As I ran next to him I had to scream "pedal, pedal, pedal!!!" at the top of my lungs not only to remind him, but also to serve as a warning beacon for all in our path. A few times I had to fling my body into the bike to cause him to stop before swerving into 2 year olds on scooters. It was intense).

In other big Henry news, the other month he submitted a poem for a poetry contest sponsored by our local children's book store, and we found out that Henry won honorable mention for the kindergarten category! He gets to go to an awards ceremony in a few weeks where he can read his poem aloud, receive his award certificate, and the store will post his poem, along with all the other winners, in the store window. We are so proud of him! This is the poem he submitted:

Seashell

Bumpy cave
A secret entrance

Seawater
Leaks through


Nice job, Henry!!!