Balancing Boy

I left town a few weekends ago for a seminar in Austin. My husband and father-in-law held down the fort while I was gone. I received a phone message Saturday afternoon that Ryan (4 years old) was riding his bike without training wheels. I was surprised as up until a short time before that he was riding a big wheel around and had never been on a big bike. He had only been riding a bike with training wheels for about 6 weeks!

The training wheels on his bike kept shifting out of position (after having "trained" 3 little boys). So Jake had shifted them up & out of the way and Ryan rode the bike just fine with out them. So Jake asked Grandpa O. to remove the training wheels. Bystander reports indicate that he picked it up very easily.

About an hour later they decided to go to the local skatepark (which allows bikes, scooters, rollerblades & skateboards). Ryan took his bike and rode all over the ramps at the skate park.

When I saw him riding without training wheels the following day it looked like he had been doing it for about a year. As seen in the pictures above he darts in and out, makes sharp turns and even stands up while peddling. Now two weeks later he's trying to master a trick by pulling up the handlebars and lifting the front wheel off the ground while he's riding (see bottom left picture above). This child never ceases to amaze us. His newest nickname is "Super Balancing Boy"!