She Rides!!!

Memorial Day will be a day to remember. I went to visit my 5 year old out in the I.E. As usual, we make a day of fun out my visits. We usually play catch, dodge ball, or I'll play fight with her and allow her to get the best of dear old dad. We sometimes cap the day off with a trip to the park where she climbs on all of the equipment and makes me watch every trip down the slide. We chase the ice cream truck and I buy her favorite flavor. At the end, it's always difficult to leave. She never cries but she always begs me to stay longer. Most often I oblige.

This trip, however, was a little different. We were playing catch in the back yard and I noticed her bicycle with training wheels sitting off in a corner. "Go bring daddy a wrench." I asked her. She later returned with the appropriate tool and I commenced to removing the training wheels.
"It's time you learn to ride without there." I told her.
"But I like my training wheels." she replied with a detectable amount of fear in her voice.
"Don't worry, you won't need them." I assured her.
After removing the wheels we went out into the street and I gave her a few instructions and off we went with me holding her up as she struggled to maintain her balance.
"Turn your wheel in the direction that you feel that you are leaning and you'll upright yourself." I told her and she obeyed. After a couple of trips up and down the street I decided to let her go and she rode a good 10 feet before putting her feet on the ground.
"I was riding by myself!" she exclaimed with excitement.
"Yes, you were." I said proudly.
We we repeated this process several times and each time she increased her riding distance. Before long she only needed me to help her get started. She negotiated her first turn with difficulty, but she managed to turn around. For a while I ran next to her, but eventually just let her ride alone with me shouting instructions.
"A car is coming, turn into a driveway. Don't panic, just turn into a driveway." At first she would panic, but she began talking to herself, "Don't panic-turn into a driveway when you see a car."
Needless to say I was so proud at how she incorporated the instructions into her riding. Eventually she got to the point where she would just ride close to the curb and allow the car to pass.

Finally she let me know that she was tired and wanted to rest. We went into the backyard again and now she wanted me to continue showing her how to hit the beachball volleyball style so that she could control the direction it went. At the end of the day, she recapped all that she had learned.
"Today, you taught me how to ride my bike, hit the beach ball and kick the soccer ball."
"Yes princess, and you did all of them well." I said giving her a huge Daddy-style hug.
My daughter is the most precious person in the world to me. Watching her grow and learn and reason is more than I could ever ask for. I look forward to all of the things I will teach her in the future. Swimming, skiing, shooting a basketball, target practice with a firearm (something I taught my son at 15), and anything else I can think of. I want her to be the most well-rounded person and I know that it's up to me to make sure that happens.

What a joy she's been to me.

The Prince