I Like The Way The Wind Feels On My Face

Awhile back Wade, Deus and I was at Wade’s mom’s house watching Corbin riding around on his bike. Wade and I then realized that Deus didn’t know how to ride a bike. I must admit I did have some though of what horrible parents we were, well me at least, to let their child go 7 yrs without knowing how to ride a bike. We have somewhat of a valid excuse, our area of residence isn’t quite bike friendly since we live off of one way streets and jerks like to speed and squeal their tires. It never occurred to me or Wade to run out and get him a bike. Deus had a radio flyer tricycle when he was small but really, that’s not a bike.

So at that moment, we knew we had to get him a bike. We waited till his birthday to get him one. That in itself was somewhat of a hassle. First trying to find out what size, training wheels or no training wheels and most importantly look and color. So on the day of his birthday party, Wade was on bike detail and picked out this pretty cool blue Huffy. It didn’t have training wheels but Wade bought some “universal” ones to add to it.
A few days later after getting the training wheels on which was after returning the first one, Wade and Deus ventured off a couple days for a couple hours to get the hang of it. About a week later we went over to the Coffey’s and he rode that thing for almost 6 hours straight I think. Every once in awhile I would go check him out and couldn’t believe how happy he looked riding down the street. He would get a little stuck turning around and those silly training wheels didn’t quite help. Of course I happened to notice that he wasn’t even using those stinking training wheels. After the long day of trailing on it, Deus tells us that he thinks he’s ready to have them taken off next time.

Another week later, he’s at the Coffey’s again and I’m talking on the phone with Tina about bringing his bike over so he can ride it with Brooke. We talk awhile about bike training and how when they tell you they want the training wheels off, then usually they’re ready. While all this talk going on, Tina realizes that she saw Deus riding a bike and it was Brooke’s bike which DOESN’T have training wheels. After verification, sure enough Tina confirms that yes he was riding the bike without training wheels. Well, that’s that. Deus now knows how to ride a bike three practices later.

I found out Deus was riding a bike without training wheels over the phone while Wade was on his way to pick Deus up from The Coffey’s. Sure enough, Wade drove up to a surprise, Deus riding away. I could imagine Wade’s excitement and both of them telling me when they got home. So I patiently waited for them to walk in the door and hear “Guess what?” I couldn’t describe the joy he had telling me how he can ride a bike and he says “I like the way the wind feels on my face.” We were so proud and hearing Deus say “I’m proud of myself!” made it ten times better. We went to Casa Ole for dinner to celebrate the big occasion.