I’ve been trying to teach Truett the Blue Steel for the longest time now, which is that deadly look all male models have. Yes, it’s the sort of important life lessons I spend time teaching my kids. But hey, it’s a good skill to acquire even if he doesn’t ever become a male model because it is versatile enough to be used anywhere, like if you have to wait too long at the bus stop or when the waiter gets your order wrong at a restaurant or somebody cuts your queue.
It’s hard to get it just right though, because it can’t be too blur or too pouty or too sullen or too constipated.
I told him to imagine how he’d feel if one of his gummies got stolen.
A year and a half later, he’s finally nailed it. Several more years of practice and he’ll be ready.
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What do you say, almost as sullen as Edward Cullen?
Except that after a couple of tries, it fell on his toe once while struggling with it and he’s hated it ever since. That was kind of a bummer because I really thought a non-pedal balance bike was a brilliant way to teach kids how to cycle without ever needing training wheels.
So I sold off the Kettler and that was the end of their bicycle balancing endeavors.
Well, right until CK from The Little Bike Shop offered to send over 2 Striders for the kids. I told him about our Kettler experience and how I wasn’t sure if they would take to it but he said the Strider was different and he was confident the kids would love it.
Long story short, they really did love it.
While both balance bikes did seem extremely similar, the Strider was great for 2 reasons. At 3.2 kg, it was extremely lightweight and easy to manoeuvre. Whenever it fell, they could pick it up quite easily on their own. Also, there are these very handy footrests that they could prop their legs on when they picked up enough speed to glide.
After a week, Truett was able to glide with both feet on the footrests looking all nonchalant. By the third week, he was trying to show off by swerving left and right downslope without falling. He’s so fast now that I’m going to need my blades to catch up.
Kirsten is still picking it up slowly but she’s confident enough to walk with the bike for moderately long distances.
On Saturday, we brought them to East Coast Park and unleashed them with their striders. Here’s a look at how it went.
Here’s your chance to win a Strider Balance Bike (choose any color) from The Little Bike Shop.
3) Pick your favorite Strider Bike color and leave a comment below on which color you’d like. Remember to leave your email address (it will be kept confidential) and use your Facebook name (instead of your nick) while leaving the comment.
4) Well, actually, that’s it!
Who can Enter
This giveaway is open to Singapore residents only.
Contest Duration
This giveaway ends on Sunday 4 September 2011, 11:59pm
The winner will be randomly selected by The Little Bike Shop and contacted via email. If the selected winner does not respond in 48 hours, then another winner will be selected.
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WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT! Congrats to Cheryl You, you’ve won a bright yellow Strider Balance Bike. We’ll be contacting you with details on how to pick up the bike. And a big thank you to everyone who joined the contest!
Happy Monday, you guys! Today’s post is a little late but it’s not because I was up late last night celebrating a magnificent Manchester United performance, even though the performance was in fact, spectacularly magnifient. By the time the 5th goal was scored, I almost felt sorry for the husband who looked like he was in severe physical pain. And then they went on to smack 3 more glorious goals in after that.
The real reason for the lateness is because we brought the kids out for a post-celebratory/mourning breakfast with the kids and a couple of friends to not talk about soccer.
And as the kids were off running doing their thing, it dawned upon me that my baby girl is well and truly not a baby anymore. She used to be the only one who would stick around wanting to be carried while Truett went off playing with his friends. Today, I was all “Mommy carry, sweetie?” and she looked at me for all of 1 second before shaking her head and sprinting off.
It was much easier to let go of Truett’s babyness maybe because he’s a boy and ever since he was big enough to go off on his own, I’ve always had baby girl’s babyness to hold on to.
The next chance I got, I picked her up and asked “can mommy carry my baby?”
“I’m not a baby, I’m a big girl.”
Today, she categorically un-babied herself. So I get to browse all her old baby pictures and feel wistful about missing my baby.
For the benefit of new readers who haven’t seen much of Kirsten as a baby, here’s a before and after.
