Noah's Riding a Bike!!!!!

Noah is the kind of child where if things aren't his idea it's NOT a good idea. I love this about him for so many reasons. For example I don't worry about peer pressure at all with him. He's a pretty smart kid, if some kid tells him it's cool to jump off a cliff I KNOW he will look at them like they are crazy and walk away no problem. While I admire his strength and sense of worth he can be a little hard to parent. He decided about a year ago he wanted nothing to do with riding a bike even WITH training wheels on it. We have tried EVERYTHING from bribes to straight up comparing and pointing out his other friends riding their bikes. I even bought him a new bike. Nothing would sway his abrupt decision to never get on a bike. NOTHING. We just gave up, you can't MAKE a child want to ride a bike. For his birthday we purchased him a scooter which he enjoys, I had given up all hope. Until...
Last Saturday out of the blue Ron and I were cleaning the garage and Noah came up to me and point blank said "Mom. I want to ride a bike." I nearly screamed with excitement. I was particularly happy about Noah's enthusiasm because it was Saturday (not just any Saturday, a rare occasion with Ron home for most of the day). Poor Ron tirelessly ran up and down our street with Noah balancing and catching him, thank goodness for the gorgeous weather we are having. Helping a child learn to ride and balance is a really good workout. After just a couple days of this Noah was riding all on his own. He could get started by himself and even turn circles. He wants to ride ALL the time! And EVERY second of the day asks if we can go outside to ride bikes. I'm so happy he's in half day kindergarten and we have more time in the day for him to enjoy riding his bike and continue getting better at it. I don't know who is more proud of him, me or Noah himself. Such a great thing to witness first hand your child's accomplishment and be successful at a new skill.

Well... Noah's bike riding story actually isn't over. I kept analyzing in my brain what could have possibly flipped that switch for him? Why all the sudden interested in riding a bike? It wasn't bribery, it wasn't really even peer pressure of all his friends riding... then it hit me. A week prior he started talking about a girl in his class that rides the bus with him. This is a HUGE deal, up until now Noah has pretty much crossed girls off his list of "things that are important or matter to him." I'm serious. In preschool his teacher would tell me about having issues with him at snack time he would straight up refuse to sit by any girl. He would chose NO SNACK or TIME OUT over sitting down and eating next to a girl. The past couple years he was adamant that "NO GIRLS" (except his sister) were allowed at his birthday parties. I always worried if he would ever change his mind about girls. So when he started noticing a girl in his class my interest was peeked! I had a couple conversations with him about "Hailie" and asked if we should invite her over sometime. He seemed excited about that so I talked to Hailie's mom the next day at the bus stop. Hailie's mom was enthused too and said that she had heard ALL about Noah from Hailie. She then asked me "Does he ride a bike? We could get together and ride bikes..." This is where my heart sank. I replied "No. He refuses to even get on a bike, but he has a scooter..." The conversation fizzled and the bus showed up at that point. I would have to figure out another play date option with Hailie. I mentioned the conversation to Noah and could tell he was contemplating it but nothing more was said about it until the following Saturday when he asked Ron and I to help him ride a bike. A couple days later my suspicions were confirmed. I could tell he felt pretty confident about his riding skills and he turned to me and said "Mom. When can we invite Hailie over to ride bikes?" It took every ounce of will power in me to not jump and shout "you did this for a GIRL!?!?!" I love it! So cute.