No training wheels!

Since we live in a townhouse community there are very few areas that are conducive for kids riding their bikes and most of them involve riding down the sidewalks with car bumpers overhanging on one side. As such Whitney doesn't get the chance to ride very often even with her training wheels on. Whitney wanted to bike to school early in the year so I rode the almost 2 miles to school with her. Jim picked her up that afternoon to ride home and decided upon returning home that if she could ride that far that it was time to take the training wheels off. He's been working with her off and on the last few weeks to ride without training wheels and slowly her balance has gotten better but it is scary to ride with so many cars nearby. This afternoon was a nice and sunny 70 degrees so we decided to head to the newly paved jogging/bike trail on base that is nice and wide with grass on either side for a soft crash landing. She started out with me holding on the back for balance but before long she was riding on her own with me running beside her. We had a few crashes in the mile she rode but she eventually learned to stop properly and figured out turning when we got back to the parking lot. She still has some work to do on starting herself but is doing awesome considering where we started today. She did have one hard crash right at the end into the truck's tire and bounced off hard with her handlebar bruising her cheek. Maren has made some progress in the biking realm this week as she finally learned to pedal her trike on her own. However, pedaling and steering at the same time are still a bit of a challenge. For now she still feels that being a Flintstone is a much faster way to travel.