Biker Babe(s)

Faithful readers will recall that Hillary has been learning to ride a bike without training wheels. And, no, it's not that I have removed the training wheels from a bibycle that she's already been riding (the procedure by which her sisters learned to ride a bicycle); she's just going directly from a tricycle to a bike and bypassing training wheels altogether. We've had several evenings on the driveway after supper helping Hillary learn to get started, to go in a straight line, and to brake, each of us offering our own tidbits of advice and cheers and applause of encouragement. The entire neighborhood can enjoy the show in the front of our house, I suppose, but that audience doesn't daunt Hillary.

(P.S. That also doesn't daunt her sisters, who have been joining her in performing gymnastics on the front lawn in the evenings. They're all taking gymnastics classes this summer, and the soft lawn on a still summer evening makes a comfortable spot to practice rolls and cartwheels. It's also much more public than our equally soft back lawn, but that doesn't seem to bother any of them. Perhaps they're just showing off.)

I have appointed Suzanna and Abigail as Hillary's bicycling instructors, responsible for teaching her by day when I'm at work and Mommy is busy with other things. They also supervise the evening instructional sessions on the driveway, and Hillary is surprisingly receptive to their guidance and feedback. She's also pretty resilient, suffering frequent falls and scrapes without a fuss, usually just examining the blood and then getting back on the bike . . . or folding her arms, frowning, and walking away from the bike for a moment but then remounting with a minimum of encouragement from us for a second try.