Riding Low and High

One thing I (usually) love about Caroline is that once she decides to do something, she puts her entire self into it.  100% commitment.  100% focus.  100% energy.  >100% intensity. She can be quite a force, when she chooses to be.  Trust me.

So yesterday after dinner, Caroline finally realized that almost every single piece of Memorial Parade candy she had collected had food dye in it, and she would not be able to eat it.  And, she was upset.  Really upset. In fact she was crying so hard and so loudly with her head tilted back so far that I don't think it could be called crying anymore.  It was keening, a full-bodied lament for lost candy.  Although I did have some sympathy for her, I certainly did not have sufficient patience to handle the volume or level of sadness that the 17 pieces of stale sugar had caused. 

However, in my most recent attempt to yell less, I looked into my parenting playbook and called the oldest trick in the book:  Redirection.  I picked Caroline up, carried her like a little child and said, let's go outside and look at the pretty flowers. She actually went along with this approach since she had exhausted herself.  We looked at all the pretty flowers, and talked about the flower names and the colors.  She calmed herself down.  And, THEN, I had my best parenting idea ever.  I told Caroline we were going to go practice riding her two-wheeler, just her and me.  Her face immediately brightened and we took her bike up to the little dead-end street near our house. 

After doing the whole run/walk hunched over beside her holding the handle bars and seat, she seemed to be getting more stable.  I (mercifully) switched to a more upright stance holding just the seat.  "Are you still holding on, Mom?" she kept asking.  "Yes, of course I am!" I answered.

Then after just one or two more passes, I wasn't holding on anymore.  She took off giggling down the street all alone.   

Since all she still needed with was getting started (one-two-three PUSH), we ran back home to get the rest of the family to show off her new skill.  We waited and waited "forever" (actual time, 2 minutes), for everyone to arrive, but Caroline didn't want to wait for Dad anymore, so she kicked off all by herself and zipped off.

And, that's how Caroline learned how to ride a two-wheeler in all of 15 minutes.  In flip-flips and a yellow skirt, naturally.

Oh, and 5 minutes later, Abby taught her how to corner on rails.

Maybe it won't be such a bad summer after all.