Day 40 - 04/01/2007

Well, here we are, 40 days later and it's Palm Sunday. Coincidence? I believe so. There's really nothing grandiose going on within this blog, it's just a place for me to capture the events of the day. There's really nothing earth-shattering that's going to come about from it.

Or is there? I suppose only time will tell.

Today M spent the afternoon in her room. It was hard on her, but hopefully it will sink in that she needs to control her behavior. I realize that she's only 8, but she's on the other side of the hill and fast approaching 9. While I do see a vast difference in the way she acts this year vs. a year ago, she still has a long way to go. Of course, as I said, she is only 8, so maybe it's me that needs to loosen my expectations with regard to her behavior and accept it for what it is. That being said, I had a sense of schadenfreude while I was out in the court with N, knowing she was looking out her window at the two of us.

Oh, we did all kinds of fun things while she was stuck in her room, including playing some baseball in the backyard and riding around the court. I tried to sneak a practice session of hitting, catching and throwing in, but he didn't quite fall for it, he wised up and refused to play catch. I was able to bribe him into trying to throw the baseballs into the bucket by offering him a Popsicle if he got one in and while he didn't get one in, he came awfully close, so I gave him one anyway.

Later on we went out front and he rode his bike around the court. He showed me how he could ride one-handed, so I told him that....

"If you can ride one-handed, that means you don't need your training wheels anymore."

A blank stare.

"Do you want me to take them off?"

"Yes. Take them off, Daddy."

Shock (on my part).

I snapped out of it and went to the garage for the wrench. I expected him to start up at any minute when I was loosening the nut, but it never came. One wheel was off and I started working on the next one, again anticipating the cries of despair when he realized what was happening, but still, they never came. I finally had both of them off and he jumped on and almost immediately fell over. He wasn't used to having to put his feet down, so I had to give him a quick lesson on starting off.

Fifteen minutes later he was riding like he had never had them on in the first place. Of course, he's pretty much not needed them for the past several months as they rarely touch the ground, but he's steadfastly refused whenever we suggested that we remove them. Way to go, N, way to go!