Unicycle

About a year and 1/2 ago, Toothsome #1 got a unicycle for Christmas.  At a "my side of the family", film festival, my brother's kids with several kids in their neighborhood who all ride unicycles, made a hilarious movie about unicycle racing.  It got Toothsome #1 interested in learning to ride a unicycle.  

After several half-hearted attempts to learn to ride one, 

this past weekend, he decided to get serious about it.  

First, it involved me moving our kitchen table to the side, removing all of the counter chairs and kitchen table chairs to our great room and letting him practice on our wood floor.  This set up stayed this way all weekend long.  (Many of my friends comment, in shock, how I let my kids ride their bikes, roller blades, etc., in the house.  I view my house as a place to live in, not baby.  Fortunately, Dentist Husband agrees and so we have a very liberal "outside toys can be inside toys" policy in our house.)

I occasionally would hold a broom stick for him to grab or walk next to him but mostly it was him holding onto the counter and riding.  About three days into it, it just clicked and he could ride off the wood floor, into my great room carpeted area.

So, we had to move outside.

Fortunately, we have had a very warm Spring.  See the tree on the far right?  He first used that tree to balance and started to be able to ride on the sidewalk in front of our house.  

 He can now go pretty much as far as he wants.  

It has been fun to watch this all happen.  

And, watch I did, because all weekend, he wanted me on a chair, in the room with him watching.  I had my kindle and Charles Dickens', "The Pickwick Papers" to keep me company between tries.    

On a side note, after hating running for about year (but still doing it anyway), I've started to like it again. The last few weeks, I have run an average of 15 miles a week.  Not bad for a 39 year old mother, if I do say so myself.