Jumping Again

Look at this adult looking boy!

Today I took the day off.  I had a quiet one and just puttered around in the morning.  Levi wanted to know why I was having a day off and he wasn't.  He said;

"Who will look after you when you are sick and I am at school?"

It is a beautiful thought.   In the face of that how do you explain that in microseconds I would be entertaining him.  I did say that I thought that fairly quickly into the day he was going to want to play with his friends and they would all be at school.    

So in the afternoon after school we went to ride the bike at the BMX track in Eatons Hill.  We went with Luke and Nate, and Pete of course.  Pete said that last week a few bigger kids were building it up with shovels, and when they kept getting in the way he said something to the affect of;

"I know you feel some ownership here but can you stand back for the kids"

They were quite polite and he chatted with them through the afternoon.  He asked them how it was made.  They reported they had made it by connecting several hoses from a public tap and several hours of shovelling and then they continued it every Friday afternoon for several years.  As Pete said;

"I guess they did, in fact, own it!"

Levi is looking like a real bike rider now but still doesn't have the same confident look that the other kids do.  He had a bit of a stack today but there was no blood, so he struggled to find a reason to be so upset.  I caught the Pre and Post on camera. 

Fun Day

Riding the Quad

On the Scooter: Look, one foot, no eyes!
Look, No Teeth!


Man Pain, Limping back to the car

We had a fun day today. The team from work came over to have lunch and do the big videotaping. We are doing a taping of the "Most Powerful Tradie" so that we can win a new truck. Actually our chances of winning are pretty low but it is a great way to get the team together and have some fun.

Then we went to the netball courts to practice my roller blading and for Levi to practice his bike riding. We went with Cheryl and Pete and the kids. They are learning to roller blade as well but I think they have a distinct advantage as they spent a lot of time roller skating in the past. Levi still prefers the scooter to the bike but I have stopped pressing him to ride. At the end, when we were all getting a little tired, Levi fell off his scooter. There was no blood and it was a very slow motion fall, but in a supreme demonstration of 'Man Pain', he then limped to the car. None of the adults paid much attention but Levi kept it up until he got to the car! Stubborn that kid.

Milestone!

Levi and Luke riding in the bowl at the skatepark. Levi is on his scooter!
Levi excited about riding his bike!

Levi riding his bike for the first time!

I have been slack about the blog because they have this odd system of internet here, that you don't pay for the speed of the internet, you pay by the number of megabytes that you use. So at the end of a long month, we were running out of megabytes and now it is the first! Well that and I changed the plan so we have more megabytes, but that started on the first as well.

Today Levi rode a bike for the first time! He has been close for a while but today really got the idea. I had promised him that when he showed any sort of interest in bike riding, I would get him a bike that fit him. So this afternoon, off we went and I bought him a bike. No, we didn't get the Ben 10 bike that was twice the price because it had a cartoon character on it. We just got a regular bike. It was fun to do and then we put it together. Mostly I put it together but he definitely helped. He was excited and wanted to go try it outside.

Now I should have known better. I had been getting Pete (Luke's Dad) to help teach him, because I am bad at that sort of thing. We went out and tried to ride here. The ground is uneven tile and there are sticks and rocks all over. I am not patient enough. I keep thinking that he will pick up this physical stuff really quickly. I forget that he is 9 months younger than all his friends and they haven't been riding their bikes for long either. Anyway I got cranky with him and he cried. We were both tired but the poor little tacker, his Mum should have known that he was that fragile. At night I told him I was sorry and that I would try to do better next time. I need to remember that he is Levi and not more and not less than that. He was very sweet and went to sleep happy, but I need to remember.

I think there is a huge difference between good teaching and good parenting. Perhaps I can hope for one of them, as I certainly don't have both! Of course I also need to just remember to just swallow my pride and let people tell me what to do without reacting. We shall see!!