One of those happy-sad days

Today turned out to be one of those happy-sad, never forget days. I'm always amazed when those days come out of no where and catch you off guard. Recently Stratton has been telling me that he is all grown up...he is almost five after all. He doesn't want to play with certain toys that use to be his favorites, he doesn't want me to kiss him all of the time and he doesn't want to ride his "little" bike with training wheels anymore.

That last dislike led to Jeff helping Stratton learn to ride a two-wheeler today. It took Stratton all of two minutes to ride it by himself. Our neighbor gave us a bike that her boys had outgrown...years ago. I thought that we should get Stratton a new shiny bike, but Jeff thought that this bike was "sweet" and perfect to learn on. So, Stratton straddled the new (old) blue Huffy bike and off into the cul-de-sac he rode. This is where the happy-sad part comes into the day. I was so happy for him because I could look at his face and see pure excitement mixed with a little bit of fear. The sad part was that as I watched I couldn't see my little boy any more. He had been replaced by this bigger almost five year old Stratton. That makes me really sad because Stratton is such a sweet kid and I really don't want him to grow up.

Stratton was doing such a great job on the bike...until the neighbor girl came bolting out of her driveway and then Stratton had his first bike collision. Yes, I ran to scoop him up and wipe the tears. He wasn't hurt too bad and it was truely an accident, but I still didn't enjoy seeing it happen. Another lesson learned...when you ride your bike and fall off you must get back on. I didn't care if he ever rode the bike again, but Jeff knew that he needed to try again. With a tear still on his cheek, my now big boy got back on that bike and rode some more.

So, today was a happy-sad day.

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