It seems Mother Nature has chosen to give our share of winter (and then some) to the mid-Atlantic states this year.  Today, Seattle had a high of 55° F, blue skies, and puffy white clouds, so we loaded up the car, drove by KFC, and spent a couple of hours at one of the many area parks.

Our main goal, besides enjoying the gorgeous weather, was to get the kids closer to riding their bikes.  I’m sure there are plenty of parents out there who would be aghast to find that our almost-ten-year-old can’t ride a bike to save his life.  Meh.  To them I’d like to say this: you try teaching a kid with Sensory Processing Disorder (highly impacting his vestibular sense, aka balance) whose favorite word is “can’t” and who reacts to stressful situations by crying and shutting down, to ride a bike before he’s damn well ready, and then come back and tell me what you think.

Anywho, I found an article here that I like an awful lot, which mentions scootering as a precursor to bike riding.  It makes a lot of sense, and we decided that encouraging both boys to become proficient on their scooters first seems imminently reasonable.  So off we went.

After a bit of jumping around (and a very Spring-like chicken picnic), Dad demonstrated:

Jason says that’s going to be his new Facebook profile pic.  Love it!  (It’s almost as good as the photo I have of him golfing with a toddler club a few years back.  I wonder where that is…)

And they were off!  We were amazed at the difference in their riding skills from the last time we tried.  Said last time was over a year ago, and it included frustration, a few tears, and giving up very quickly.  It put all of us off trying again for quite a while.  I’m pretty sure the three recesses a day and resulting hours of climbing on the playground equipment might have something to do with their increased gross motor skills.  (Note to the state of Georgia: Recess DOES have a positive impact on children.)

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(Heather, see that tongue sticking out?  He’s really concentrating!)

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And moms everywhere will understand the significance of this.  I had Jason take a photo of me with the boys.  I’m actually going to appear in the scrapbook with my children.

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