Lessons in bike riding

Daniel and I ended up running all over Wichita this morning. We started out heading to Target to exchange our defective DVD player. I took it back into the store and explained to the customer service guy that I just wanted to exchange it, but I would really like to have my DVD back - you, know, the one that was stuck inside of it. So I went back to the electronics section, got another one, and then walked over to the bikes to see if they had the tires that I needed for his bike.

Of course not - they don't sell tires any more. They sell the tubes, but no tires. Well, that's fantastic, since I already have the tubes....but, whatever.

We went back up front and exchanged the DVD player and left. Then I thought that since we were in the "big city" I might as well check some other local bike shops to see if I could find the tires for less than the $20 that WalHell wanted. Thanks to my trusty phone, I was able to pull up a few that were in the area. I stopped at the first one, and lo and behold, they wanted $20 for the tires too. Uh, thanks, but no thanks. I'll find them cheaper elsewhere.

Then I realized that I was just a few blocks away from Toys R Us. They sell bikes. Therefore, they should sell bike stuff, right? So off we went. We found the bikes in the back of the store, found the tubes, but again, no tires. I hit the nearby "help button" several times and waited for an associate to come help me as the little button promised, but nothing. Irritated, I walked back up front and asked about the tires. Guess what? They don't sell tires anymore.

At that point, I was willing to just give up and go home. We got back in the van and headed in that direction, but at a traffic light I pulled the list up on my phone one more time. There was one more shop that was sort of on the way, so I opted to call it to see what their prices were before I actually stopped in to check. Turns out that he had the tires and they ranged from about $9-11. I asked him to repeat himself, confirmed his store's address, and got there about 3 minutes later.

So, the same tires that would have cost me $40 plus tax at WalHell ended up costing me about $25 at this place. Oh yeah - I was happy - and Daniel was thrilled!

This afternoon, after I picked the boys up from school, I started working on the tires. It was a lot harder than I thought that it was going to be, and my hands are killing me now, but I finally got both tires changed. Turned out that one of the tubes was actually still in good condition, so I now have a spare tube.

I was absolutely tickled that after I got it done, Alex was helping Daniel to get his helmet on the right way. Daniel was so stoked to finally be able to ride his very own bike that he just couldn't get his fingers to work fast enough to get it on himself!

He couldn't wait to get onto it, but of course I hadn't thought to lower the seat yet - he still managed to get on, even though he couldn't reach the pedals. So I adjusted the seat and then we started practicing. I'm not sure how many times I ran up and down the sidewalk with him, but it was more than a few!

He's never been on a "big boy bike" so he really had no idea how to pedal or anything - but I honestly think that the hardest part is going to be getting him to look forward instead of down at his feet or off to the side at something.

Wouldn't life in general be easier if we all remembered that?

It's a lot easier to get to where you want to go if you just focus on what's ahead of you instead of all of the other distractions.




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And just because it's too adorable not to post....after supper and baths, they played for a while and then got really really quiet. I went to tell them to go to bed, and this is what I found.

Moments like this make my heart happy.