I forgot to mention in my last post…  In all the biking Anna has done in the last two days, the only fall she’s had was when she had stopped her bike and was standing with it by a curb.  She leaned over and the front wheel turned causing her to fall and scrape her knee.  She has yet to actually fall while she’s riding which I think is awesome.  :)

Well, we’ve reached another big milestone in Anna’s short life. As the blog title not so subtly hints, Anna is now riding her two wheeler bike with NO TRAINING WHEELS! We tried to take them off a month or so ago but she really just didn’t get the whole balance thing. She was really dependent on those training wheels. Our friends, Andre and Mary, have been been staying with us while they’re in between houses and they have “no pedal” bikes for both of their kids. Anna really liked riding her friend, Olivia’s, and she very quickly figured out how to balance on it. Here’s a video of her riding it down our street:

She was getting to where she could ride for pretty long distances without putting her feet on the ground so I thought we’d give the no training wheels thing another try.

Yesterday, I took her to a big, empty parking lot since it was a gorgeous day out. She practiced for a bit on the “no pedal” bike and then we got her bike out. I got a really good workout running along beside her the first few times. Initially I gave her a big push and put my hands on her just enough to keep her balanced. Once she realized that she could stay balanced as long as she kept her speed up, I just ran along side her, just in case, and then helped her stop at the end of the long straightaway that we were going down.  After maybe 5 or 6 long straight rides, she finally figured out how to brake using her hand brake.  I ran with her a couple more times (See?  A GREAT workout!) until I was confident that she could stop on her own.  I still had to help her get started as neither of us could really figure out how to get her going by herself, but once started she could ride around for a long time.  By the end of our hour or so in the parking lot she was able to ride all around everywhere, in circles, around curves and she was stopping really well too.  Here’s a video in the parking lot.  It’s a little “bumpy” because I apparently can’t walk and video at the same time…..

Later, after we got back home from her gymnastics class she wanted to go back out on her bike.  She kept telling me how much she loves riding her bike, that it’s so much fun!  We went up to an almost empty street with a cul-de-sac and she rode around there for a good 45 minutes or so.  She didn’t like riding on the sidewalks to get to that street because they’re too narrow, but she’ll get used to them eventually.  By the end of our trip to the cul-de-sac she was even able to get going all by herself too!  Here’s another video.  There’s a shot of her getting started by herself towards the end of the video.  And this one is MUCH better than the last one since I was able to stand still to video..

Pretty awesome, huh?  I certainly think so.  Today we went out again this morning and she rode around that cul-de-sac again and we went down a couple of other empty streets as well (so that she could stay riding on the street since she isn’t as crazy about sidewalks).  She’s pretty confident on the bike already and has gotten pretty consistent at getting started by herself.

The one thing I’m sad about is that Dan wasn’t here to watch her ride the bike without training wheels for the first time.  I took her out not really expecting that she was going to get it so quickly.  Dan was out camping with a friend, but he got back tonight and Anna was SO excited for him to watch her ride her big girl bike.  He was so proud of her and I can tell he’s excited to turn her into his little mountain biking buddy.  Towards the end of the evening when she was riding outside she was even starting to stand up and pedal a little.  I think she’ll be riding the trails with Daddy in no time.

Here are a few more photos from yesterday.  Click on all of the photos in this post for larger versions.

And you know, sometimes you just gotta stop and make a phone call…

Riding off into the sunset…sorta..

I really believe that the key to her learning balance on her bike was riding that “no pedal” bike for a few days.  Granted, she’s always had really good balance, but I do believe that helped her body understand how to lean on the bike to keep it upright.  I think that we will forgo training wheels altogether with our next kid (whenever we make the decision about having one..) and start them off with one of these “no pedal” bikes and then go straight to a two-wheeler when they’re ready.

What a great milestone though.  I’m so proud of Anna and she LOVES riding without her training wheels.