... the kids rode their bikes home from school on Thursday and Cal quietly tied his shoes entirely on his own on Friday.
I had been wanting to do the bike thing for some time now but needed to think through the logistics of making it happen, luck into some good weather on a day I was either working from home or had taken off from work, set enough time aside for it all at pickup time and then assess my appetite for a handling a frustrated Leatherkid or two which would surely happen at some point during the ride home.
Thursday was the day it finally all came together.
I estimated it would take 45 minutes to get the kids home once I kicked off the process. I stopped working at 5pm and headed to the garage to get the kids' bikes into the car. Last summer, this was much easier -- Cal was still on his Dora trike and Ella wasn't big enough to pedal, so she'd either sit in the wagon or on the back of my bike. I could transport all of this in one shot to school without a car. Gone are those days. Once in the garage, I loaded Cal's bike into the car first and then threw Ella's in a space just big enough next to Cal's.
I then drove to the school, unloaded the bikes and put them next to the building, got back in the car and then drove home. Ella would need some help from me throughout our trip home, so I couldn't ride my bike to get back to school quickly; so just as soon as I was home from dropping off their bikes, I was headed back to school on foot.
None of this had been cleared with the Leatherkids, by the way. I didn't know what their appetite for riding home would be, so I was definitely taking a chance. Ella's been pretty enthusiastic about riding her bike since she learned how to pedal earlier this week, so I felt pretty good about hers. But Cal? I wasn't sure. He's generally up for a bike ride, but clouds were rolling in and rain appeared to be imminent -- Cal doesn't like rain.
As I walked, I did some work, responding to emails from co-workers. Ahhh... technology. I can work remote with just a cell phone.
When I got to school and lay the bike news on the kids, Ella was excited and announced to her teacher and friends that we'd be riding our bikes home. Cal's initial response was one of disappointment; but once we got outside, he was fully on board, despite the drizzle.
The ride (walk for me) home wasn't too bad. Ella probably rode half of the distance without needing me to push her while she pedaled -- for the most part, she rode entirely on her own on the flat or downhill parts, and needed my help for any uphill grades. She was happy all the way. Cal rode ahead of us most of the time and got cranky on the uphills. "I can't do it!" he declared a few times and then mumbled something to the effect of not liking his bike or biking in general.
Cal also got cranky when I suggested that he try to balance himself more. He has a tendency to lean left and rely on his left training wheel, so we've been suggesting to him that he work on straightening himself out.
In the end, it took us about 55 minutes from initial loading of the bikes in the garage to putting the bikes back into the garage. I enjoyed it, and I'm glad we did it. I don't know that we'll do it again, though. At least, not the same way.
So that was Thursday. On Friday, I didn't get a lot of Leatherkid time. It was a co-worker friend's last day at work, so we had a lunch and happy hour planned with him. This meant I needed to go in to work, would have a rushed morning and would be home later, possibly after the Leatherkids had gone to bed.
The good thing that happened actually came early. Cal's known how to tie his shoes for a few months now and has been doing so, sometimes without a squawk and sometimes with a lot of squawking. Lately, it's been a lot of he latter. All of a sudden, his shoelaces and how tight they are and how long they are and how they lie, when tied, on his shoes bother him unless they're perfect. He wants Velcro shoes!
"I hate these shoes! Why can't I have Velcro shoes?!" he exclaimed once.
"Because they don't make Velcro shoes for kids your size," I told him.
"Yes, they do," he informed me. "Alex has them." And I responded that the Velcro shoes are cheap and hard to find and probably light up (I hate light-up shoes) and it was time for him to wear good shoes with shoelaces. This was during Thursday's meltdown.
So he's been asking for help. Dan's pretty good about not helping so that Cal learns to tie his shoes on his own; me, well, I'm good about not helping him only sometimes -- depends on my tolerance for the whining or my ability to resist my mom instincts to just help my kid when he says he needs it.
Cal's struggles with his shoes of late were the reason he has a new goal on his Reward Chart -- "Get Dressed." It was one of the pre-defined ones that came with the chart, so we've explained to him that this really means get dressed all the way to putting his shoes on and tying them. He's really good about getting dressed in everything pre-shoes. So if he gets dressed in the morning, we reward him with a star; at the end of the week, we count all of his stars and give him a coin for every star he has. He puts the coins into his piggy bank (actually, fish bank); and after several weeks, Dan takes him to the bank to deposit half of the money in his piggy bank into his savings at the "bank bank" and then to a toy or book store where he can spend the other half of it.
Heading into Friday, Cal had two starless "Get Dressed" boxes (days) on his Reward Chart. Shoe time on Wednesday and Thursday mornings had been ugly, and Cal hadn't earned a star on either day. (I think we were pretty generous with them on Monday and Tuesday, too, so it's not like those days were a walk in the park, either.)
On Friday, though, I didn't even know he had his shoes on. He did it all on his own without being prompted by Dan or me. No squawking. No tears. No words at all. He just showed up next to me as I stood at the fridge and asked for his star. When I looked at his feet, I saw those beautiful, bright blue New Balance running shoes with tied shoelaces. I praised him and handed him his star. This was a good thing indeed!
No comments:
Post a Comment