For Christmas, Santa brought Addison a brand new tricycle. She has been on a trike before, but has never really experienced pushing wheels and steering (lots of coordination for a toddler). She has seen her good buddy Brooklyn, take off like the wind on her trike and Addison just loved it, so we thought that this was going to be a quick pick up for our sweet Addy. Well.....I think we forgot about how Addison's gross motor skills are much less developed then Brooklyn's! Brooklyn has always been a very fast mover..crawling, walking, jumping, etc. and Addison has been a couple trails behind her.( She is like her mommy..:-( ) Not a problem for us!! We just thought the bike would be different. Anyways..I want to take you through the play by play of Addison learning her new trike riding abilities and where we are as of now! Here we go!!
1. Day after Christmas we decide to head outside at Nana and Poppa's house and start the trike training process. It is a good start, she has her feet on the pedals and her hands on the handle bars.
2. Daddy showing Addison with his hands how her feet need to push on the pedals and go..right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot.
3. Still in trike riding position, but not really moving anywhere, because she is not pushing on the pedals.
4. Says she can't do it, and gets off. Looks like there might not be a whole lot of motivation here.
5. Brings the trike, with her hands-not riding it, over to the curb where there are...LEAVES!
6. We get her to get back on her trike, with the assurance that she is able to put her new leaves in her handy dandy basket in the front of her trike. We tell her that she should ride her leaves around on her new trike...with voices of doubted enthusiasm.
7. She agrees and Daddy pushes her for support and in hopes of getting her to start pedaling on her own.
8. eh....That is no go! It is back to the exciting leaves. HOOORAY!! Well, better luck next time...right?!
Well for the next couple of weeks, we have been trying to get Addison on the bike with frustrations from parents and daughter. She has not had the motivation to pedal and we are so set on our daughter being smart enough that she should be able to figure this out. Well, she is smart enough...she just does not want to do it!
On to this week! We are pedaling...only about 3 feet at a time, but we are pedaling. Let me tell you our play by play for this week.
1. She is pedaling! "Addison you are doing it!!" YAY!!!
2. "You got it! You got it!!"
3. "Smile at Momma!! We are so proud of you for riding your bike!!"
4. "Addison, put your feet back on the pedals!! We are not scooting!!"
5. Okay, we are back to pedaling again. "You can do it Baby!! Keep going! Lets go ride down the sidewalk!"
6. And this...CRASH...is why she can only make it 3 feet. We have figured out the pedaling to some degree and we have now added in a new step of what? Steering.
We have been trying to stay very positive with her and we know that she is going to get this! We are using it has a first/then technique. First you ride your bike then you can play on your swing. It is a must do physical play time activity before any others so that we can practice. I know, you probably think we are drill sergeants! But how else will she learn, and as I said before we are being positive...I hope!
Anyways, keep us in your thoughts and well wishes and we tackle the task of riding the trike with some pushes, guiding, and coaching to riding all by herself and zooming down our sidewalk. ( I know that is a nightmare in itself!)
Much Love,
The Reynolds
