Oy.

Ben and I have been commenting lately on how things seem to be getting so much easier for Rachel. This past week she worked on jumping rope and dribbling a ball (not at the same time!) and has quickly been able to organize her mind and body to improve her skills in both areas!

Anna finally got her much awaited first bike this week. It's pink and has the word "candy" on it. There are also streamers! What more could one little girl need? So when Ben got home from Windsor on Friday, she helped him put the bike together and we headed out for her first ride.

Not to be outdone, Rachel agreed that maybe she would give her bike another try. She's more or less outgrown the 18" bike she has, but we raised the seat and handlebars up as high as they would go so she could use it until we can get her a bigger one. We had talked about maybe having her try the handbrake instead of pedalling backwards to stop because she has always had trouble switching gears (pun intended!) with her body. Imagine our amazement last night when Rachel not only rode her bike but also easily stopped it by pedalling backwards when needed. She needed some help getting started but she does still have the training wheels on which I've heard can make it harder to get going.

This afternoon, Rachel rode her bike around our crescent and the neighbouring crescent without stopping! She was able to turn the bike successfully and was very proud of herself. Anna was annoyed that we went ahead without her (Don't worry, she was with Ben. It's not like we randomly left our 4-year-old riding through the neighbourhood on her own!) but got over it because she was so happy to be riding her own bike.

So, what prompted the title of this blog post?

Later this afternoon, the girls were playing outside. We ate dinner outside too. If I didn't know for sure that it was March, I'd have thought that this was the May long weekend already by the weather. Actually, I take that back. This weekend has been warmer and sunnier than long weekends in springtime usually are!

Rachel decided that she wanted to go on the swing in our backyard. She asked for a push to get started and was then pumping her legs on her own and saying she wanted to keep going higher. Again, this is huge! Rachel's occupational therapist believes that balance and stability is key to Rachel's confidence and ability to master new skills and so it makes sense that she has avoided activities like swinging and bike riding since they aren't anywhere near as stable as, say, sitting on the floor reading a book.

Imagine my consternation, then, when I looked over in time to see Rachel go flying off of the swing and land on the ground in a heap. Thankfully, she did put her hands out to break the fall even though that didn't stop her from tumbling over on her head too. Certain that she had just been twisting the swing as she pumped (she had been doing this a minute before), I checked her out, assured her that she was fine and said that I figured she knew why that had happened.

"I know," she said dolefully. "I should never have done that." Always one to look for ways to hammer a point home, I told her that she was right. I asked her to tell me what she wouldn't do again.

"I won't let go!" she sobbed. Oy. Yes, that's right. My previously swing-shy almost-8-year-old decided that it would be a great idea to swing fast and then stop holding on to the ropes. I admit it. It took all I had not to laugh. She recovered pretty quickly and was off to play with something else in the yard so I suspect all's well that ends well.