Days with the Dorans

 As I mentioned, April 16th was a busy day. Z got a bike from my folks and Joe, Al and I went on a bike ride with him while Seany stayed back with Jeff.  Wow! Did we get a surprise when we got back!!!  Sean's training wheels were off and he was riding a bike!  His first go was much like Z's... just got on and went. The only thing that was tricky for him was braking so Al helped him out with that. Since then, he's been a riding machine! We have been on tons of rides and he even rides around our house (in the yard). I love how much he loves to ride!

Yesterday Z decided he wanted the training wheels off his bike.  He has been riding his scooter all spring and I was surprised he even brought up his bike.  My dad happened to come over today (we're drawing up plans for our deck) so he took the training wheels off and went to hold on to the back of Z's bike (in order to run with him a bit until he got his balance).  The only thing is... he didn't have to!  Z literally said, "I got this," and took off riding!!!  I have never seen anything like that before and we all laughed out loud watching him go!  He did get a few pointers (from his coach, Ali) on turning and stopping.  She literally stood at the end of the driveway and would ring a bell for him to stop and he would~ on a dime.  Prior to him getting his training wheels off, we had prepped him saying, "Now Goosie, you will probably fall..." and Al went over all her battle scars~ but clearly our talk was unnecessary.  Not only was th...

With her brother riding on two wheels, it wasn't long before competitive Ali Jane had to give it a go! Unfortunately her old bike was so small it was a bit tough for her to ride. Nana took her to the store (after some research) and got a bike for her that was just perfect and a matching helmet! Ali Jane was biking after just a couple tries and is even doing well with turns. We just have to do a little work on braking... (ouch!) I am amazed with how easy this was for the Bigs to do! Maybe because they had such a great coach! Today Joe went on a 2 1/2 mile bike ride while Jeff ran. He's counting down the days until he gets that 'DS'.

It feels our summers are always on the go... at the park... at the lake... playing with friends... Because of that, we have totally dropped the ball on bike riding (even though Jeff loves mountain biking-)! Today we noticed an advertisement for a (cheaper) bike trailer for the L ittles, so figured it was time for the Bigs to learn to ride their bikes without training wheels. Because we live on a hill, it isn't the best place to learn to ride a bike and so we went to a nearby park that usually doesn't have a lot of people. After seeing his bike without the training wheels, Joe got whiny and said he didn't want to learn to ride a bike! Nothing we could say was going to change his mind, and then I made a mistake. I told him that if he rode his bike for five days without training wheels, I'd buy him a DS . I don't even know what a DS is, and I don't think he does either for that matter, but with all his friends talking about them, he thinks he needs one and...