Milestones

I know I've written in the past about how my kids can't seem to do things that other kids do so naturally.  Andy is 10 and I'm pretty sure he still can't ride a bike.  Oh, he can ride it, but starting and stopping is questionable.  Sarah is definitely not there and Charlie and I both recently tried and quickly gave up teaching her.  If you truly understood how much she whines and cries about everything you wouldn't have much patience for it either.  Seriously, after spending some time with her over the holidays April from New Jersey told me she thought I had been exaggerating about Sarah but realized truly I was being generous in my descriptions.

When my sister and her family came in August Sarah was distraught by the fact that her cousin, Ella, could swing by herself without needing pushes and I did not ever think she was going to get to that place.  But alas, a few weeks ago she proved me wrong.  Out of nowhere, somewhere deep within, it all of a sudden clicked and finally our instructions of how to "show your feet, hide your feet" or "lean back when going forward and lean forward when going back" made sense.  One day she could just do it, and once she figured it out she didn't want to stop.

She came home after school and all she wanted to do was swing in the backyard.  When I told her she had to do her homework first (which usually consists of reading one book and takes about 10 minutes), I was intentionally trying to prevent her from swinging and was destroying her life - or something of that nature.  Day after day she would spend on the play set seeing how high she could go and how quickly she could get going.  She was so incredibly proud of herself and it is amazing how much her confidence grew, just by learning that one simple thing.

I was proud of her for sure, but all I could think was it's about time!  I still have no idea if and when she'll figure out the bike riding, but hopefully knowing how to do this will give her the confidence to realize if she can conquer one impossible take she can conquer another.

As for Amanda, she's getting there too.  Over the weekend she figured out how to pull herself up onto the swing without any help.  Hopefully she will get the swinging part down sooner than later.