Anyway, a year ago, Mags was experimenting with a no-training-wheels bike at the Green's house - a house full of extremely adventurous children that Mags considers her best friends. She seemed to be ready, so Boppa took off her training wheels here at home and we began to work on this new skill. About sixteen seconds into the first session, Maggie decided that this was a scary / new experience, and the freaking out began. We continued to work with her, on and off last summer and fall, making absolutely zero progress and "enjoying" lots of freaking out. Since riding a bike is not a necessary life skill to possess at the age of 5 1/2, and there is plenty of drama to deal with in the necessary parts of Maggie's life, we decided to just leave the bike as it was and wait awhile to see what happened. When we pulled out the bike this year to see what the status was, Maggie had clearly progressed in gross motor skills but was still freaking out, so we pretty much dropped the instruction again.
And then something weird happened.
Maggie was showing off her "new trick" to us on Monday night, which was kind of scooting around the driveway on her bike. We really didn't pay much attention to this, to be completely honest. She seemed perfectly content to scoot, so we figured this stage would last a long time. Last night, while Geet and I were at a bridal shower, Mags begged Dada to take her outside so she could scoot some more. Dada agreed and he and Cal proceeded to play catch while she scooted around. Sean said that he glanced up every minute or so to check on the scooting, and without warning, one of his glances found Maggie doing this...
I Want to Ride My Bicycle from Sean Higgins on Vimeo.
No drama, no freaking out, not even an announcement of "hey, lookee here, I'm riding my bike!". It was like it was completely normal and she'd been doing it forever. Sean said that she immediately was even able to make pretty tight turns and demonstrated her skidding ability. She absolutely loves it and has been riding for most of the day today...in fact, she's riding right now and Calvin is yelling directions at her through the window - "Leg down! Mah-geeee, leg down! Watch out! Cars!".
So now I'm trying to figure out how to apply this to learning to swim. (Yes, that's right, the daughter of a former competitive swimmer, coach and instructor who has taught, oh, seventy kids between the ages of 3 and 6 how to swim can not swim a lick at the ripe old age of 5 5/6, and has me more stumped than I've ever been in regards to instruction.) The freaking out combined with the public nature of available swimming pools around here has proved an insurmountable obstacle thus far...oh, and throw in Mag's natural inability to float because her body density is so high. It gets old really fast to have everyone near the pool staring at you, wondering what sort of torture you are putting your poor child through that would cause such screaming and sobbing...and it's only her feet that are wet at that point. Obviously it's not going to work to just toss her in the pool to find the equivalent of "bike scooting" and expect a solo swimming demonstration shortly thereafter...drowning would probably interfere with those plans pretty early on. Maybe the new calm, no-big-deal attitude will just carry over to our next pool visit. I'll keep you updated.
6 comments:
Hey Mo,
Don't feel too bad that Mags freaks out at swimming. When I was five all I did was scream and hold onto the swim instructor or the wall. I was so afraid of the water. I was fearful in general though and there is many reasons for that, but the whole point is that I love swimming and playing in the water, except for last summer at Icthus when I almost died because I am fat and out of shape, but I still love the water, especially being underwater, so don't give up hope.
You like my really long run-on sentence.
It's just too funny to read your blog. Timmy just started pedaling and he's 4 1/2! He's super excited but has no intention of ever taking the training wheels off....oh well! ;-) As far as Maggie and swimming...have you tried taking her to the Greens on Wed. and getting her into the little pool there? Timmy was scared to death, too but the mean mother I can be, I just shoved him in (with floaties) and then he didn't want to come out for 2 1/2 hours ;0) just a thought... I just started saying "kick" and "close your mouth, blow bubbles", etc. Thanks for the advice regarding the meds. I have been taking ibuprofen and benadryl and since getting out of the ER they prescribed some stronger stuff, too. I'll look into what you mentioned - it's always worth a try!
Oh, man! I keep forgetting to tell you "HI" from Laina Elder. She says she knew you before you were married...I think you both worked for GTY?
WHOA! Here I check in expecting to see accolades for your husband for whisking you away to the Swim Trials for a week, or accodades for the swimmers themselves, and instead I find praise for the feat of your brave-almost-six-year-old daughter! Whooee, Maggie! Way to go!
Am so glad everyone is back home and safe and experiencing new things on your street. I can almost bet Calvin will not be nearly six before he rides without training wheels. Congratulations, Maggie! You will enjoy your bike even more now. Mocha and Midge and I miss you, Roommate!
In flip flops, no less.
Way to go, niecie. :)
Morgan!! I don't know if you even remember me from GTY days, but I found your blog through both Liesy and Cherie and I wanted to pop in and say hi! :) When Liesy sent out all of the info of their church in WA, I was so excited to find out that she's up there with you guys! :)
I love your blog! And my wonderful third child is a precious drama girl as well, so I'm excited for Mags and encouraged to know that we might one day make similar progress. Maybe. LOL!
~Laina
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