When it comes to toys, we’ve been trying to buy Logan less but higher quality items. Once you have a kid and you see the ridiculous amount of stuff to own, you try to cut down where you can. Plus. it keeps things out of the landfill. So for Christmas, we made a short list for Grandma, Oma and Pop Pop.
Among those things was a Strider bike. Which is basically a child’s bicycle without pedals. So in theory, the kid learns the concept of balancing while riding a bike without the need for training wheels in the future. They come in fun colors. Why not?
So on Christmas, Logan opened up the bike and we gave him some time to play with his other new stuff before introducing it to him. About a week later, we strapped his little helmet on and had him sit on the bike in the garage. The problem was that I didn’t lower the seat enough and as he lost his balance, he couldn’t catch himself and down he went.
He didn’t even want to look at it for a month.
Then, we slowly started bringing it out again and eventually he warmed up to the idea of pushing it around with one of us. It was a good start.
Then last weekend, Caitlyn went away for weekend camp so it was just Dan Dan and Logan for the weekend. (PS: I’m Dan Dan because it what Logan calls me.) I took it down and he let me put the helmet on him. Then we pushed it around a bit on the lawn walking alongside it. Ok, good.
Next, I ask him if he wanted to sit on. He promptly shook his head no but I asked again and tapped the seat. He relented and we both pushed the bike around the lawn, only this time he was straddling it. Eventually, I let go and then he stopped and just stared at me. We pushed it again and once more, I let go and encouraged him to go on his own. He looked forward, made a gruff engine noise with his throat and never looked back.
