It was a pleasant morning in June and the kids were riding bikes and other riding things on the driveway as they often do on pleasant mornings. Larry and I had been bugging Joseph about relinquishing his training wheels for a while, especially since he could ride his balance bike down a hill while weaving between two rows of trees, over a driveway, and into a drainage ditch without issues.
On this particular morning, Joseph said that he was ready to take off his training wheels. I said okay, buddy, let me go get some shoes on and I'll help you. I went inside and when I returned to the scene a minute or two later, Joseph had already obtained a crescent wrench, removed his left training wheel, and stored it on a shelf. I didn't even know he knew what tool to use for such a job, much less how to use it properly! The right wheel was on a bit harder, so I helped him with that.
Then he hopped on his bike and started to go.
That was it.
By the next morning, he was standing and pedaling and turning. A few days later he was confident enough to ride to a local playground a mile away.
I don't know if I am more proud of the bike riding or the wrench usage.
Video here:
Link to YouTube
I have seen the stat that a typical pre-schooler asks 144 questions per day. Joseph, god bless him, reaches his quota by about 9:15 AM. I try to nurture his questions to promote his love of learning and curious nature. But sometimes, I am just worn out. Read: I begin to make sh*t up. (Ask me sometime about the great footballer Silas Bojangles.)
Sometime this past spring, I was with the kids and Abigail was talking about being a GES Gator. And we talked about the Wildcat mascot where Lar and I teach. And the Tiger mascot at the middle school. And the Bobcat mascot for another school. More questions kept coming. At some point, Joseph wanted to know what animal represented his school. Ready for the interrogation to be over, I quickly answered with mock surprise "Oh Joseph, don't you know you are a Merit School Minnow?"
He saved face by saying "Oh yeah, I knew that."
The conversation was forgotten (by me, at least) until last night. I asked Joseph how he was enjoying his summer break so far and he said it was great, but then sighed and paused and said "I miss being a Minnow though, and seeing Ms. Kelly and Mr. Jay and getting Friday dum-dums."
