I want to ride my bicycle....

At last, we have ditched Little Z's stabilisers for her bike (we will keep them of course as they were a present from Uncle Seanie!).

Last weekend we took Little Z out to Wilverley in the New Forest to ride her bike. She was so good at riding with stabilisers and had at last plucked up the courage to ride much faster than she used to, that we thought she was ready to ride without stabilisers. We took one of them off, but found that she was relying on that one to keep her upright while she started off with both feet on the pedals. The only way to get her riding properly was to take them both off.

We had tears and tantrums and kicking the bike (and that was just Larry! It's not easy teaching a stroppy seven year old to ride her bike!), but finally, lots of shouting, screaming and stropping later she was riding, albeit wobbly, without us holding on to her bike. Yippee!!

So, all we had to do now was to get her a bit of practice so she could start off by herself and ride around more confidently. But that would be easy, surely?!

I took Little Z out to the sports centre today to have another go. We had more tears and tantrums and kicking the bike, but finally, lots of shouting, screaming and stropping later she was pushing off by herself and riding, much more confidently. After shouting at me over and over again, "I want to go home. I don't want to ride my bike. I can't do it!", and me shouting back that we would not be going home until she could *£$% well do it, it was impossible to remove her from the sports centre where she took pleasure in showing me how fast she could ride and how close she could get to running over me while I was sitting on the grass!

Now, she wants a new bike, one with gears!