A Girl and Her Bike

For Christmas in 2010, when she was 2 1/2 years old, Mazie asked Santa for a "strider bike" -- a small bike without pedals.  Santa decided that rather than getting an actual Strider-brand bike, he would get her a toddler-sized pedal bike and take the pedals off... that way, she could learn to ride it without the pedals and then, when she got the balancing down, we could put the pedals on and she would learn to ride a bike!

At first, the bike was just a little too big and Mazie didn't show a lot of interest in riding it.  Then this past fall, I took her to Boulder's new bike park with these guys...

and her desire to keep up with them gave her the motivation to really try it for the first time.  And then on one of his visits Papa took her over to the little ramp at Memory Square Park... he carried the bike up to the top of the ramp and helped her ride down, over and over with his sweet Papa patience.  Since then, she's been riding more and more and getting more confident.  A month or so ago we all rode our bikes about 4 blocks to our friends' house.  It was slow going on the uphill, but on the downhill on the way there she did great -- she was picking her feet up and really trying out the balancing piece.  On the way home, she REALLY got going, and ended up having a major crash right into a chain link fence.  It was pretty scary and she cried for a while, but in the end she recovered well and rode her bike the rest of the way home.

This past Thursday, I took her back to the bike park, and her progress since the fall was on full display.  She was riding over bridges and bumpy trails, and it was clear that she was ready for the next step.  Here she is on Thursday:


So on Saturday, we got the pedals put on her bike and went back to the park to try it out.  Here is the first attempt... she's used to pushing off with her feet, so it's kind of frustrating that the pedals keep getting in the way.

About a minute later, we got to the top of a small hill and Caleb gave her a little push... and off she went!

We spent close to an hour at the park on Saturday and by the end she was able to get herself started.  Most importantly, she was loving it!

The next day was Easter Sunday, and we decided to take a family bike ride down to the park for a picnic.  Mazie did so well that after lunch we hopped on a trail and rode for a bit.  When I mapped out our route when we got home, it said that we rode for about 2 1/2 miles!  Athena happily rode along in the trailer.  It was pretty great.


We're pretty impressed with our little biker.  Caleb didn't learn to ride until he was 7... I don't remember how old I was but definitely older than 3!  It's been great to watch her enthusiasm, and we're looking forward to lots of family bike rides... although it's already looking like she's too big for this bike and will need a new one soon!