Julia has gotten very good at riding her bike - no, no, motorcycle. That's what she insists on calling it. Today we went for a 30 minute walk and she pretty much rode her motorcycle the entire way. A month or two ago I tried to tell/show her that when she got riding fast enough, she could pick her feet up and coast for as long as her momentum carried her.
Today she really figured it out. There were times where she coasted (and steered) with her feet up/balancing for 30 feet at a time. It was really fun to watch her ride a bike (essentially) for the first time in her life. When she took off down the sidewalk I cheered her on until she coasted to a stop. Most of the time she would drop her motorcycle and run back to Momma to give her a hug, the entire time calling out to Stacey to make sure she had seen her ride her motorcycle.
As if almost learning to ride a bike (except the pedaling part) before the age of 3 wasn't good enough, I was very pleased how well Julia took instructions from me. She seems very teachable. One joy ride ended with a little bit of a crash because she picked up too much speed - a consequence of good balance and good steering. I only needed to tell her once that sometimes she might end up going too fast and that all she needed to do to slow down was to use her feet. Sure enough, the next time she started to coast she put her feet down to slow herself down after picking up enough speed.
Perhaps the best part of the day was seeing her eyes light up when I told her how good she did on her bike and that I was proud of her. At the very least I got a hug out of it. It's the little things like this that make me glad I took some time off work to stay home and that make being a parent worth it.