Big day for Nicolas

I suppose it is the curse of being the third child that many of your major milestones get less attention than the siblings who were lucky enough to precede you. Occasionally that is the case for Nicolas who has done some pretty cool things and gotten less than his fair share of the fanfare.

For example, Nicolas was the youngest rider by two years in the horse course this year yet he road solo around the ring and through the obstacle course! His teacher, our friend Barb, commented that she was amazed at his composure on a horse.

Yesterday was another milestone for Nicolas which should not go un-noted. For the first time, and by request, Nicolas rode his bike without training wheels. This was completely unprompted. He just came up and said, "Daddy I want to ride my bike without training wheels today." No maybe this was to be expected, we have not been pushing him to do it and he must have decided on his own that he is ready.

He did great and rode the first time with only a push from me to get going. As he headed down our alley he did have quite the escort (see pictures below). He also started to master stopping (very important to riding) and has yet to tackle turning. This meant that we had to wave Julia and Lea off a few times because they were buzzing around the wobbly Nicolas like bumble bees which distracted him. It was quite the scene for a little while there in the alley while Nicolas went back and forth and his sisters zoomed around simultaneously encouraging him and laughing all along.

For my part I got him going and then dutifully ran along behind him watching to see how he was doing and running interference for him to save him from a sister induced accident.

He never fell although he did tip over when stopping. He was not phased and got right back on the bike. Needless to say we are very proud of him and are looking forward to some great family bike rides!

Here are some pictures.