This past weekend Emily and I spent quite a bit of time getting her rolling.  She is now, officially, a bike rider.  She had to overcome some serious panic issues but, once she did, things went pretty smoothly.

She was actually really funny throughout the process (if you consider panic humorous).  On Saturday, while riding, when I let go of the bike she screamed, "GRAB THE BIKE, GRAB THE BIKE" over and over until I did, in fact, grab the bike.  She didn't crash but she was convinced she would.

Eventually she stopped screaming and, at one point, while riding on the brick street, I told her how great she did for not panicking, she said "I panicked, my heart was racing really fast."  I told her that was ok at least she controlled it.  Then she went into a story about how nervous she gets when playing hide-and-seek just before she is found and how her heart races really fast then too.

Yesterday we hit the streets again to make sure she was maintaining the little bit of comfort she had built up on Saturday and she did great.  She rode her bike,without me holding, around the majority of our block.  I only had to help her on a bit of an uphill and once to help her correct her steering so she wouldn't slam into a car.  She still gets really nervous when her direction changes without her wanting to and she doesn't always correct it quite right.  In fact, she is pretty funny about that too becuase she tends to lean off the side of the bike away from whatever she is afraid of hitting.  But, when she leans ,she locks her arms in a rigid position which keeps the bike going in the undesired direction.

I believe by this weekend however she will have the complete knack of it (including the start) and she'll be crusing up and down the street without me near her.  I post a video when that happens.