We turned a corner this weekend that I never even thought was on the map. Kallie, the littlest and youngest child of ours by a mere one minute, rode a PW by herself. Her twin sister, Katie, had already had her first two PW rides under her belt. And, by the way, her first (of many, I am sure) big wrecks. But Kallie had other things she wanted to do on those days. Namely, drawing in her notebook and playing with her baby doll. On Saturday, our baby decided it was time. Time to get off the pit bike which was safely steered by Dad and try this riding thing on her own. Now, I am not a nervous, queasy mother. Any nervousness I had was cured by our son's daring antics from birth. When Cael was one, he decided to climb up on the bedside table and wrestle the lamp. He lost. When he was three, he learned to ride his bike without training wheels and pop wheelies. We taught him early to always wear a helmet! Now, he is seven and he loves to jump off of things with his skateboard. That still makes me a little nervous. But when our four year old little girl got geared up and threw her leg over that motorcycle, I wanted to put her back into a playpen and never let her grow up. In fact, I was so dazed by the thought of my youngest riding a motorcycle, that I did not take a single picture. But Kallie is tougher than she looks in those princess dresses she wears sometimes. She is also possibly the most stubborn child we have, although that is a toss up. She bravely tried again and again, even after she wrecked hard a few times because she couldn't remember which way to turn the throttle to let off the gas. I must say my husband also showed an amazing amount of bravery and patience that day. He was teaching not one four year old to ride safely, but two! He continued to teach even after taking a rear wheel to the shin, compliments of Kallie! I had to laugh at the character of our youngest daughter - after she wrecked, she would jump to her feet, and say "It's ok, Daddy. I'll pick it up" as she tried to pick the bike back up! I don't know if our girls will ever race like their brother and frankly, I don't know if my heart could take it! But I do know that children learn a lot about themselves by doing things that scare them. Whether that means climbing to the next branch in a tree, reading in front of a roomful of classmates, or riding a motorcycle for the first time. Our job as parents is to catch them when they fall and give them high fives when they succeed. Being a Moto Mom of three kids , I have the opportunity to do a lot of catching AND high fiving!
