Bea’s 2nd PROPER bike ride – MUDDY!
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Bea was keen to go for a “big girl’s ride” again, so decided to find another bridleway that was a little quieter, and hopefully simpler to navigate, and maybe with some gentle slopes in. Found a good route that was far enough away to mean the bike rack was needed on the car.

I put on my proper bike gear, and found some old cycling shorts from one of the boys for Bea – with proper padding in!

Bea is getting better at the braking – I’ve been teaching her to “weeeee” down hills with her feet off the pedals so she can get the feeling of adjusting the brake pressure rather than just jamming them on to stop quickly. Gradually getting there on a couple of the hills here.

She found some of the ride hard, made harder mostly by her desire to ride through the centre of EVERY puddle. Whilst it was funny getting sprayed (I was behind) with mud off her rear wheel, there were a couple of tumble moments when the bike just stopped as she hit the mud. One time she went over the bars, and both brakes got buried in the slime.

Not quite as far as last weekend’s ride of 4miles, but there were slopes, tunnels and ditches to navigate and avoid; she pulled an amazing emergency stop when she wobbled towards a ditch – I was super impressed her reaction was to jam on both brakes and she stopped herself from going over. We managed a little over 2 miles, and I think she was more exhausted than last week!

Managed to get the Garmin GPS watch working and was able to track our route here:

Here’s a little YouTube video taken as we were “weeeeee-ing” down the road to the car:

And a photo for good measure:

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First proper bike ride
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At the last cycling outing Bea was adamant she couldn’t start off on her own, eventually being encouraged and mastering it.
I offered that if she became good at starting off on her own we could all go on a proper bike ride.

This captured her imagination and since then has asked to go out as a family – especially with Mummy on her pink bike (just like Bea’s).

So thought we should have a go on a local bridleway that is mostly hard packed, but certainly not car park smooth as she has been used to.

I was a little nervous of her ability to brake, go up or go down hills, and the various steep drops from each side of the track.

In fairness she only fell off badly about three times, once trying to ring her bell, once trying to look behind for me and the other was mud related!

What impressed me the most was her staying power, aside from a couple of, “I can’t do it” comments (and overcoming without assistance), everytime I asked her if she wanted to go back she said no. In event we travelled over four miles on a bumpy surface and were “riding” for 1hr20mins!

She is and should be proud.

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And a little video of her pushing off:

Err… She has a “position”…?
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I was getting changed at the end of a long week at work when Bea came and found me in the bedroom. She took herself to the window, arms behind and stated, “Right,  Daddy, this is my position: for my next birthday I would like a guitar“.

I managed to stifle the laugh and shock and said that was ok. We will remember her request and will ask her again closer to her birthday. She quickly stated that was fine but,  “I am sure that’s what I need” (at the same time reinforcing with a solid flat-hand affirmation)!

I followed up (in an effort to stump her… is that cruel?!) if she wanted an acoustic or an electric guitar. Her response? She asked a bloody question: “which one will play loud music?“!!!

It was this point I couldn’t hold the laugh in anymore…..  🙂