Moving up in the world

Charity and Jonathan - I tried to post one of MJ and Joseph too but it wouldn't load so...they'll have to wait until next time! Also, this picture has nothing to do with this post but it was too cute, I had to share it!

Well we’re moving up in the world. Joseph decided that he has had enough of training wheels. I had a feeling they were just a crutch for him anyway but yesterday I made time out of my busy schedule to take them off for him. (You know, it takes all of a minute and a half to complete the job, with the first minute spent figuring out what size socket I needed on the wrench.) I told him to go for it and then I went inside to do more stuff since I’m not really an outside kind of girl. He and Charity came inside to play about 5 minutes later. I wasn’t really paying too much attention to them because Michael was in the middle of homework. I kicked the kids back outside when Michael was done and told Joseph to go learn how to ride that bike. He looked at me like I had grown horns and told me he already knew how to ride it. I fully admit that I was skeptical so I followed him outside and sure enough – the kid rides like he’s been doing it all his life. He’s still a little shaky on stopping and he’s got what Eric refers to as the “orphan curse” – aka, no fear – so he rides really fast. Not necessarily a pretty combination, so I think we’ll avoid the road for a little while longer but it looks like we now have 3 real bike riders. Jonathan, it seems, can ride a tricycle too. This is the bribe that his OT and PT are both using to get him to work hard for them. He’s gained a lot of strength since he’s been home and he’s gaining more and more ability to steer. He needs about one more inch in his legs and he would have no problems with the tricycle at the hospital. His feet keep slipping off the pedals. We had gotten rid of all of our tricycles before moving back home after law school so now we have to add that to our arsenal of wheeled toys in the garage. What joy! In the winter they don’t bother me that much but this time of year becomes hazardous and mom gets rather annoyed. Every time I get ready to pull my van in or out of the garage I have to do a perimeter check to ensure I don’t run over anything. The kids are pretty good about putting their wheeled arsenal back in the garage when they are done playing but they don’t necessarily take the time to put them away safely and while theoretically I would like to let life teach them a lesson or two about what happens when cars and kid toys meet, I really don’t want to deal with the whining and imagined “trauma” that would ensue if I actually ran over one of the stupid things. (Don’t tell my kids that I just used the “s” word!) I can only imagine what it will look like when they are actually on the things every waking hour. I now know how people can have 4-car garages and all their cars sit in the driveway. It’s not because of adult stuff – it’s because of kid paraphernalia.

P.S. Sorry the pics don’t match the post but my camera had to be sent off for service. I’m going through serious withdraw and the fact that I didn’t get any pics of Joseph yesterday is messing with my “mommy guilt” gene.