In Which Lexi Takes Another Step to Becoming a True Portlander

Portland is a great city for cyclists. Unfortunately, our particular neighborhood is not terribly conducive to bike riding. Our street dead-ends at the bottom of a hill, and it’s really narrow. After living her for nearly five years, we finally got Lexi to a point where she was comfortable riding her bike with the training wheels on, and as soon as that happened, no joke, the training wheels pretty much disintegrated.

We figured it was a sign that it was high time she learned to ride without them. She’s 7 (and a half - don't forget the half), after all.

So Vicki has diligently been dragging Lexi outside on the few afternoond and weekends we’ve had with nice weather, trying to teach her, but like I said before, our street isn’t the greatest for riding bikes, especially if you don’t already know how. But yesterday was absolutely beautiful, so we loaded the girls’ bikes into the car and went over to the park. After playing for about 2 hours, Lexi finally decided she was ready for Daddy to teach her. And so it began...

"Don't let go, Daddy!  Promise you won't let go?"

(he, of course, made no such promise)

Taken about two seconds before she realized he wasn't still holding on and put her feet down.

You can see her thinking, "Okay, okay, I can do this, I can do this."

"Whoa!"

(I should mention that she's the only one of the three who didn't wind up with a skinned knee from falling off her bike.  Elile found herself on a slanty path and tipped over.  How and why Vicki fell we may never know, but fall she did, and fall Lexi did not.)

"Concentrate, concentrate..."

(You'll probably have to click on this one to get the full effect, but I love the tongue poking out between the teeth - priceless.)

Yikes!  Don't crash into your sister!

"I did it!  I'm doing it!  I can do it!"

In no time she was riding like a pro, and the only thing that stopped her from riding her bike to school this morning was our current lack of a bike lock. The rain, she says, had absolutely nothing to do with it. I believe her.

I should, of course, mention that, being Lexi, the first thing she did after she successfully rode for any length of time was to stop the bike and put and both her hands up in the air like a gymnast who’d just stuck a perfect landing.

Go Lexi!

(Also, when I told her I was going to do a blog post on this, she grinned from ear to ear and gave me a HUGE hug.  Oh, how I love my Lexi!)