WEANED!

To get in some good news from this weekend, about the new vehicle we did add to the family fleet:

Before going in for car maintenance yesterday and changing the tenor of the weekend, Tom decided it was officially time to give Edith her Big Girl/Big Sister Weaning Bike. The baby's birth was supposed to be the catalyst for this momentous event and she hasn't arrived yet, but as of Friday Edith has been officially mommy-milk free for six weeks. She even stopped herself in the middle of the act of seeking mommy milk at a difficult juncture, telling herself out loud, "No, I don't do that anymore." In addition she has reached the bottom of the three sheets of paper that make up her sticker chart, the green sheet that she associates with the arrival of both bike and baby. We all had a free day. So Tom declared it time.

All things considered, it was probably fortunate that we didn't try to assemble the bike while juggling both an excited three year old and a newborn. Imagine all the classic images of confounded parents trying to make sense of the multiple plastic-wrapped parts of a child's toy that looks so simple on the box...But I think we got it right in the end, despite instructions for assembly that didn't match the parts in the box. And Edith was proud.


Despite being able to ride a tricycle, she couldn't figure out how to turn the pedals on the two-wheeler. We moved about 20 yards down the block with me pressing on each pedal in turn next to her foot, trying to give her a feel for how it worked, but she never seemed to get the motion. Or to care. She just kept repeating, "I'm not big enough to ride a bike unless a grown-up helps me." Moving from one side of the bike to the other pushing the pedals myself, I bottled up my urge to say, "Try, for Pete's sake!!" This was supposed to be a celebration, not a pressure-filled exercise in meeting expectations.

After a few minutes Edith forgot about pedaling altogether. She looked all around pointing out airplanes, birds' nests, squirrels and the like. Then she got off, and we put the bike away in the shed. Glad she's happy with the symbolism of the Big Gift, as she doesn't seem driven by the urge actually to operate her new wheels.

The back yard is several inches deep in oak leaves, so I then raked up a few piles, and she and Bismarck took great delight in jumping in them. Next time we plan to offer a big reward as incentive in mid-fall, I'll remember leaves.