Not-so-easy rider

I must confess, I didn't think the Little Guy had it in him.

As I've noted before, Elijah is not exactly athletically inclined. Unlike most American parents, though, I'm fine with this. I can think of few things I enjoy less than watching team sports, and I certainly have better ways to spend the next decade and a half of Saturday mornings (and weekday evenings and Sunday afternoons) than schlepping my kid to a soccer field or baseball diamond or whatever to watch a bunch of overinvolved parents scream as their hyperscheduled kids chase after a ball.

But I'm a huge fan of fitness, and of unstructured play and being outdoors and running barefoot in the grass and getting knee scrapes and bug bites and maybe even the tiniest bit of a suntan.

And I'm a believer that being a kid in the summer should include bike riding. That's why, way back when Elijah turned 2, we dutifully purchased a classic red-and-white Radio Flyer tricycle. Better not wait any longer, we thought, because he's already big enough to wear it out in a single summer. And soon he'll be moving up to bicycles.

Anyone want a like-new Radio Flyer tricycle?

It's still sitting in our garage, this pristine piece of Americana. It's virtually unused, although finally, at age 5 1/2 or so, Elijah did actually get the hang of pedaling it.

Now that he's nearly 6, he at last seems to be enjoying wheeled toys (his made-for-toddlers scooter is his favorite). And he's been making progress on physical skills in general, which means we have arrived at what the developmental professionals would call a "teachable moment." This became obvious to me a few weeks ago at Target, when I pulled a small, training-wheel-equipped bike off the display rack and plopped it down in the middle of an aisle.

"Hey, Elijah, want to try?" I said in my highest-pitched, oh-honey-you'll-just-love-this mommy voice. (It's the same voice I use to try to get him to eat healthy food, which is why I wasn't expecting much in the way of a response.)

Never underestimate the speed at which a novice bicyclist can pedal down the aisle of a discount store. Stunned at the fact he could even stay upright, I caught up with him just before he would have knocked down a display of fully inflated beach balls.

I thought perhaps it was a fluke, but when we repeated virtually the same scene a week or two later in a Wal-Mart, it became clear that it was time to brave the bicycle world.

The story of how we came to purchase a top-notch bicycle for a relatively bargain-basement price is long enough for an entire blog post in itself, but I'll spare you. Let's just say it involved a dedicated daddy who shops the clearance sales, knows which stores stock which items and never neglects to use the coupons in the Entertainment guidebook. And it did NOT involve any discount stores (which is good, because we just might be on a list of banned customers after those in-store pedaling escapades!).

So the bottom line is this: We have achieved a bicycle as well as a little boy who is already enjoying it despite himself (in the presence of the bicycle, he goes through cycles of excitement and apprehension and fear and joy faster than those spokes can spin). And thanks to the fact that we live in an area laced with paved trails that go through woods and alongside fields and over creeks and to parks and school playgrounds and even swimming pools, I think we have this summer-fun thing in the bag.

Here are a few shots of Elijah's first time out on his new bike:

Getting started ...


On a roll ...


A decision looms as a fork in the path approaches ...



... and failure to navigate the turn leads to a tumble and tears.



Overall, though, it was a very happy day in the life of a little boy.