In Which We Ride Many Times Around The Park

Connor and I drove out to Bradley Park today and did some serious tricycle riding. I say serious, because according to Connor tricycle riding is apparently a very serious activity. He stares down at the peddles with this look of intense concentration, as if he can will them to move through sheer brain power. It's very cute.

He's been doing a lot more rocking on the trike trying to move it himself, which is encouraging. Bradley Park has a number of gentle downslopes on their walking trail, and he figured out that when we were on those downslopes all he had to do was push really hard with one foot to get himself started and then he could coast all the way down. It was really exciting for me to be able to stop pushing him and watch him move around on under his own power-- made me tear up a little bit. He still can't go anywhere on level ground yet, but he's slowly getting the idea and making progress.

Someday when he's old enough I'd love to get a tandem bike converted so that he and I could ride together. I think that would be really fun, and good exercise for both of us.

We rode around for almost an hour; he was totally exhausted by the time we left but still asking for more, and he got kind of upset when I took him off the trike and we went home. He's trying so hard to learn and it's obvious that he finds it to be pretty thrilling. I put him down for bed and he zonked out within five minutes.

The trike riding is doing something else for him other than just helping him figure out coordination. Since he started riding I've seen a visible improvement in the muscle tone in his legs, and he's much more solid on his feet now. Now that the worst of the heat is over we're going to go back to horseback riding, too. I'm excited to see what the combination of activities will do for him!

~Jess