Aubrey has been working on riding her tricycle since she was 2 years old! Finally this fall she was able to ride it on her own - but I soon discovered it was only down hill! Last month she was able to ride it on flat ground. Today I took her to the school playground to practice. There is quite a large asphalt area, that until I took her with her trike, I did not notice that it has an incline. Not a very large one - but enough to make it quite challenging for Aubrey. She got on her trike and worked and worked and got her self all the way across the asphalt. (She was going across the incline not up it at this point.) Then she turned her trike and wanted to go in the direction of the incline. She worked so hard at it. A few times she got frustrated and started whining a bit - but mostly she was focused on her goal. When she was a few yards from the sidewalk she turned her handlebars too quickly and fell over. She got a little scrapped up and was pretty upset. I picked her up to console her. Less then a minute later she jumped right off my lap, picked up her trike and got back to work. This time she got all the way up the hill! I was so proud of her. She didn't let the stumble beat her - but was determined to complete her task!
Brooke had sat on a bench with me and watched the whole thing. So, of course, she wanted a turn. This was her first time trying to ride a tricycle. I helped her for a few minutes showing her what to do with her legs and how to hold the handle bars. I even pushed her a while to let her feel the motion of the pedals. After about 10 minutes of showing and guiding her, she had had enough of my help. She said, "Mommy just watch me." I stepped back a few steps and said, "Ok, I won't help." She replied, "No go over there to the bench." (the bench was all the way across the asphalt by now.) Funny kid. Then she worked and pushed her cute little 2 year old legs until she could get it moving a bit. She never got it going very far, but she did get it moving off and on. She was not going to give up until she got it moving all by herself!
I was so happy to see my girls work so hard to accomplish a goal and not to give up even though it was hard! I hope they always have that kind of determination!
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