Bike Riding

On Wednesday I decided it was time for Rachel to lose the training wheels on her bike. The motivation for this decision was my neighbor's three-year-old who rides her bike to the bus stop without training wheels. If a three-year-old can do it, I figure Rachel has a fighting chance. She proved to be an eager student. It only took about 10 minutes of my helping her for her to gather enough skills to go it on her own. Ever since then, I cannot keep her off the thing. She asked me yesterday if I would be willing to bring her bike to the school so she could ride it home. Considering that is an eight-mile bike ride, I opted not to. Overall, first grade has made my little girl grow right up. You should hear her read! I think she likes school, but when she comes home she always says something akin to "I am so glad I'm home!" There is no better compliment to me in the whole world than that!

Emilia now uses my title appropriately. Instead of referring to all of us as "dad" I now get to hear "mom! Mom! Mom!" in regular intervals throughout the day. Still Emmy's heart belongs to Shelby. If he leaves before she wakes up in the morning, she sits at the stairs and says "Dad!" over and over as she waves. I can't tell if she is trying to bring him home, or wave good-bye.

You have never met a child as good at making friends as Lilly. Every day she comes home from school and says "I made a new friend!" I tell her that is great and ask the friend's name, even though I already know she is going to say she doesn't know. Yesterday she said she made a new friend, but before I could ask her name Lilly said "I don't know her name but she says I can call her whatever I want. So I call her Kailee!"

Up until now, Carson has been very gentle with Emilia. I think it has recently occurred to him that she is no longer fragil. He still isn't exactly mean, but he does use her as a form of entertainment now. Like if she is trying to crawl around he will hold onto one of her legs so she can't. Or if she is playing with something, he will take it away and watch for her response. I suppose this is all pretty typical. And I don't blame Carson. He is a product of his environment. Around here, older kids work hard to make the younger ones squeal. He is just doing what he has been taught! It is obvious he loves her. He does not like to see her outright crying, and he will still crawl up to her and give her a little kiss and then scamper away.

One funny story for the road. Shelby spent Labor Day pressure-washing the deck. He asked if I could keep the kids off the deck on Tuesday so it would stay clean and he could come home and stain it. Lilly asked if she could go outside. I told her it was fine but to go through the garage and stay off the deck. She asked me why she couldn't be on the deck and I said "Daddy wants to keep it clean so he can come home and stain it." Lilly thought for a moment and said "If dad is going to stain the deck, then why do we have to keep it clean?"