Pedal Bike

Lukas has been able to ride a pedal bike (sort of) for a little bit.  Ability and wanting to ride on his own are two different things.  He usually brings out all the drama and reasons why he can't ride his pedal bike - his shoes hurt, his feelings are hurt, he's hungry, he's tired, he doesn't want to...you name it, he's tried it.  We knew his balance and pedaling was there, but he just had to WANT to ride.  Today we did a bike session at a local park and it finally clicked!

I will admit, the first half hour was painful.  I was getting a lot of whining and excuses. Nothing I did was right.  He was crying because I was holding on, then I got the crying for not holding on; he wanted to be pushed, so I pushed...then all of the sudden pushing was the wrong thing.

So...I resorted to good ole fashioned bribing.  I offered ice cream as a reward for successfully riding a few laps around the park on his own.  At first I was dumbfounded that despite this treat at the end, he was still being such a pill about riding.

Then, a neighborhood kid came to the park and Charlie and he started riding their bikes.  All of a sudden Lukas wanted to ride too.  And voila...