Enjoying The Ride

Natalie's big present for her birthday was a girly bike. She had been using Liam's old bike, and really had outgrown it. So we finally got her a Very Girly Bike. Very girly. A Barbie bike, to be exact. And it has a tiny little bike on the handlebars so that a Barbie doll can ride with her.

Too. Darn. Cute. And probably a little obnoxious, especially if you don't like Barbie.

Now she wants to ride her bike all the way from home to school when we walk to pick up Liam, which is probably about a mile in total. She does really well, although it is kind of hard to help her over bumps and push Owen in the stroller. Today Owen fell asleep late and Jim was working from home, so I just left Owen asleep and I let Natalie ride. Something about the way she sits up straight and kind of wobbles back and forth reminds me so much of Elmo riding a bike (for those who watch Sesame Street often I think you'll know what I mean). Too cute. Plus, I think every female we passed, woman or child, let out a shriek when she saw the Barbie riding with her. I could tell Natalie was so proud. (Liam, maybe not so much...)

I almost hate to add this, because I hate for his accomplishment to be overshadowed by Barbie, but Liam also learned to ride his bike (withOUT training wheels) this week. Yippee! I was a little worried he would be 18 and not riding, because he had not shown much interest in trying. He has never been big on bike riding, even with training wheels. But, in typical Liam style, he took his time getting around to it but then when he really tried, he learned very fast. (Learning to walk was the exact same thing. It took him forever to try it, but then one day he just walked around like he had been doing it for a year.) I don't have a picture yet - just video. Maybe I will try to post some of that later.