Good Riddance

This boy of mine has been able to ride, in my opinion, without training wheels for quite some time now. However, there was something about those training wheels that he was unwilling to let go of. I begged, I pleaded, I bribed and nothing worked, well, until this week anyway. He has really been wanting this new Beyblade toy thing and I have really been wanting him to take those noisy unnecessary training wheels off. So I used bribery once again! We started by taking one training wheel off. He rode around like that for a while, I ran beside him, etc. I gave him a little bit then took the second one off. We set out with me holding on, encouraging him and the panic totally set in again. This kid is a gang-buster, no-fear kind of boy and this was totally throwing me for a loop. We happened to be over at the schoolyard and I stood up trying to figure out my next plan of attack and there it was. A giant, flat, mowed, field! I asked him if he would feel better about learning on the grass and he said yes. Took two times of me giving him a little push start and he was off! We spent the next 30 minutes or so practicing in the field. We ended on that note, a high note, a happy note and immediately went to the store to buy the toy! That was a couple of days ago and I wanted to get him back on his bike. Joel and I grabbed the tennis gear, Oliver and his bike and headed back over to the schoolyard to practice some more. Oliver was still very hesitant to get onto the harder surface and ride but Joel and I both knew if he just tried he would immediately love it and never go back to that hard bumpy field. Dad ran around with him in the field for a while, giving him some tips and pointers on how to ride them gave him one little challenge...start about 15 feet from the grass on the concrete and ride into the field. HE DID IT! Rode down the sidewalk, into the field, turned around and came right back onto the concrete and never looked back! The only time he went back to the field was when he raced down the sidewalk and bombed into the field on purpose. He rode and rode and rode some more, all of us grinning ear to ear! (The pictures and video are from my phone, not the best quality.)