Sunday, June 14, 2009

Demi Learns to Ride!

On a lighter note, Demi learned to ride a bike this past week! We are very excited about that! We’ve tried getting her to ride on several occasions over the past few years. Her younger sister has been riding for almost two years now. But I don’t think Demi has been ready until now.

We started by getting her comfortable on the bike without pedals. The seat was low and she could easily put her feet on the ground for stability. She started just by pushing herself around on the level drive way. Next, she was able to coast down a gentle slope in the yard, balancing on two wheels, fairly easily for very short distances. Next, she was able to coast down the gentle slope of our street for a pretty good distance.



Next, we put the pedals back on and encouraged her to coast like before, but with her feet on the pedals. After that, since she had to get back up the slope, she started pedaling on her own relatively easily.



Then it was a matter of practicing to build strength and confidence. By the end of the week, she was able to ride down the street and all the way back up on her own. It's not an insignificant slope! Yesterday, she did that three times!



My husband has been very diligent about practicing with her every night. He bribed her each day with dessert or candy. If she did X, she would get her reward. Although she frequently didn't want to continue, she would toil on to get her reward. He raised the bar pretty significantly each day, but she was up to the task!

Of course, it was not without incident. DH had been running the length of the street with her to ensure she didn't fall over. The first time he had her do it without him, she fell over and skinned her knee pretty badly. The next day, she had new knee and elbow pads, along with little riding gloves. That day, with her new pads, she took another good tumble. Because of her pads, she "only" had bruises on her back and hip where she hit. Since she couldn't see any scratches, she "recovered" remarkably well.

Yesterday, we went to our local BMX track for Dana to practice. Demi was riding on a smooth track around the outside of the BMX track. As Dana was coming off the track onto the smooth path, Demi was coming down a small hill on the same path and (you know what happened) - front end collision! Unfortunately, Demi caught the brunt of it, flew over her handle bars, and landed on her face. :o

So now the poor dear has a skinned knee, a big bruise on her hip, a few scratches on her back, a huge fat lip, and scratches from her nose to her chin. What a rough week! BUT, in true Kabuki fashion, she has not complained at all! She's as cheery and happy as always, proud of herself for her huge accomplishment this week. We are very proud of her, too!

(Demi is 7.5 yo.)

No comments: