she can ride
We had a gap in the rain this morning and whilst Squeak and I went to do our shopping at the market, Bubble and dOH went to the park with the new bike. When I turned up an hour later, I was met with the most beautiful sight I had seen in a long time. There in the distance I saw my girl riding her bike on her own, with her daddy running after her through the muddy puddles towards me. She managed to ride 50 yards by herself before falling into a heap at my feet. The look on her face is something I will remember for as long as I live – she was beaming with ecstatic joy.
“I can do it!!!!! I can DO IT!!!!”
My girl.
As I thought about it later on, I realised how much she had wanted to ride that bike, how hard she had worked for that hour (and with me for an hour yesterday) to overcome her fear of being out of control and how proud she was that she had achieved it. How wonderful to be a witness to that self-styled and self-achieved success. How wonderful that dOH and I had helped her to achieve it with zero coercion; we were the platforms in which she sprang from.
I am still smiling now as I think about it.
