Grafton put on his cycling gloves all by himself today, which is no mean feat, since even his parents have always had trouble getting each of his fingers through the holes when helping him.
You should see this little guy on his bike now--he pedals faster than Dad now. He really flies and gets up all the little hills without stopping. (When he's tired, he struggles, but rarely stops). He's still on training wheels though. We're not pushing him too hard to take them off, but we keep mentioning it. He recently agreed to taking off the training wheels from one of his two bikes; we'll see how this goes when I actually do it.
Myself, I've been getting in some early morning rides before work recently. A couple of times I've slipped out before Grafton was up, but today, Grafton was up. He helped me get ready but teared up with the saddest pout I've ever seen when I was heading out. He really didn't want me to go. But then he didn't try to make me stay either, which he could have easily done. I think he really understands that I love to ride my bike and didn't want to sabotage my opportunity. I thought that was quite mature of him. But it sure was hard to leave such a sad little boy behind. I made it up to him tonight by joining him on ride around the neighborhood. We do the loop outside of our house rather often now. And now that he can get his cycling gear on all by himself, it should be easier than ever to get a quick ride in together.
A tender and loving story of a beautiful friendship between father and son--especially when they share a common passion. In this case, Grafton has inherited the bicycling gene from his dad. Guess we'll be heading west to Colorado in a few years....
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Nana
Great story. Great father. Great Grafton. I wonder if the psychological ploy of playfully refusing to take off the raining wheels might spur him on. In any case, there is no rush. When he's ready, he's ready.
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Way to go Graf. When the training wheels come off in South Hadley, Grandpa will take them off your bike in North Carolina.
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He definitely takes after his father with respects to biking through the pain. On our rail trail bike ride in La belle, QB he cried through through a long stretch of construction gravel on the rail trail in obvious physical distress, but kept going and going through the tears. Quite an impressive feat for a 3 year old that had already biked 2.5 miles. Go Grafton!
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