OH HAPPY (SAD) DAY!!!

Tonight we passed one of the major milestones of childhood...learning to ride a bike! Wednesday night we let them push Shark bike with their feet and no pedals/no training wheels to get their balance. It was the best thing we have ever done (thanks to the article at the local bike store for that tip). Andrew has been asking all day to put the pedals back on the bike. So after dinner, Mark put the pedals on and we took the bike out behind our house.

Here is Matthew's first ride...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_tTLznsh_c

And Andrew's first ride...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvkJZCshFnw

Mark and I were stunned at both of them - they took off the first time like they had been doing it for years and they were so very proud of themselves. They took turns riding Shark bike for awhile and then Mark decided to take the training wheels off of Tonka bike and Matt rode it the rest of the night. Here is a video of Matthew on Tonka bike...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_-C3JpoLOI

They were riding together on the path, passing on the right, riding around the big circle, and trying not to run over the neighbor's overly-friendly cat. We did have a few incidents of running into parked bikes, trees jumping out in front of the path, and invisible bushes, but no harm done except one splinter for Matthew. As we were taking the bikes back to the garage, our neighbors came home with their kids and extended family so the boys had to show off their new skills on the sidewalk to a large round of applause.

What a bittersweet evening - new skills for the kids and same old tears for the parents watching them grow up.