Defying Gravity…
Age 4 | JK (Junior Kindergarten)
Another memory that sticks out in my mind (and makes me smile every time I think of it) was Pierce’s inability to adjust his body to sloping sidewalks while riding his bike. He just never adjusted his body at all. It didn’t help that city sidewalks were not designed for beginner bike riders. Void of long stretches of straightaways, they were peppered with pebbles, erratic branches, and an overwhelming numbers of curb cuts (where the sidewalk dipped) for driveways. Regardless, when he actually rode it, Pierce always rode his little bike like a tiny superhero on four wheels.
“He would ride his bike like he was in a gravity defying video game”
These little sloped obstacles of doom provided endless moments of laughter for me. Pierce never quite adjusted his body (or bike) to them as one would expect. Most children who encountered these curb cuts would adapt and make the corrections needed to right themselves (and their bike ) to remain vertical to the ground - completely upright. Not my son. That was NEVER the case. He would ride his bike like he was in a gravity defying video game, like the bike was on tracks and his body would just.... follow. He would ride full-speed, care-free, oblivious to any slope, and ride seated in his bike at a 45 degree angle (sometimes more), trying to break all laws of physics. Fortunately, My husband was always there to keep him from falling, bracing him while he crookedly rode his bike (on a slant), until the sidewalk flattened out and he would continue on…blissfully unaware of anything out of the ordinary.
Image Credit: 2 Photo Pots