Growing up and learning to let go

The weather is quickly turning to spring, although, did we ever really have a winter this year? Not that I’m complaining. We enjoyed the warmer weather this weekend and spent some time outdoors. Austin’s mom and dad have been visiting us this past week, so the girls got to spend some extra quality time with them as well. On Saturday, we all went out for a walk for lunch, and stopped by the local bike store. At a playdate last week, Naomi had a chance to ride her friend Emily’s “big girl bike”. She could barely reach the pedals, and had a hard time getting the bike to move at all. I spent a lot of the afternoon pushing her around the block while Emily zoomed around us. That experience definitely wet Naomi’s appetite for getting her own big girl bike, and after watching how well Emily could ride, I realized we definitely should be spending more time outdoors just playing with all of the outdoor toys we have. Sometimes we get so tired and busy from work, it’s just easier to let the girls play indoors in a contained environment. Anyway, at the bike shop, they had two bikes which Naomi could fit, she picked the pink one, surprise!
After lunch she spent the afternoon practicing, I’m so impressed at how good she’s gotten. She practiced more on Sunday afternoon as well, and can confidently pedal all by herself now, in fact if I try to grab the handle bars she’ll usually knock my hands off. She can turn on her own (with only one small spill so far), break, and is starting to get more confident with braking.
Watching her bike around, I couldn’t help by get a little anxious. Ok, a lot anxious. When she goes down hill, it took a lot for me to not yell out for her to slow down, or to simply grab the bike and slow her down myself. I kept having to brush off thoughts of her falling and getting all scraped up. When she did fall down yesterday, it took a lot for me to not rush to her and baby her immediately. Instead, knowing it was a small spill, I stood back and let her pick herself up, and watched with pride as she jumped back on her bike, instead of wimping out and declaring she was done.
I guess we’re all growing up in a way.