We celebrated Christmas Eve at Sam and Chanda’s house with all the extended family but I didn’t take a single photo, I just enjoyed the evening.
After that we came home and lit the last of our advent candles and then sent Simon to bed so that Santa could put together a bike.
We are trying hard not to over do it with the gifts. Simon got a balance bike and Talia got a doll plus the stuff in their stockings. (super cute stockings hand knit by my Aunt Bobby Jean). My friend Ashley came to celebrate Christmas with us and we had a great little Christmas morning.
Simon was thrilled with the bike despite the fact that it has no pedals. This is the new philosophy in bike riding – that training wheels are useless. I will let you know how it works out but basically the thought is that you need three skills to ride a bike: peddling, steering, and balance. Simon already knows how to peddle and steer from riding his tricycle (he got really fast at that this summer). The last piece that Simon needs (and the hardest) is how to balance a two wheel bike, training wheels are useless for learning how to balance and really serve no purpose in the learning to ride a bike process so enter the balance bike. The idea is to push it fast and pull your feet up on the running board and balance it. Once you can do that really well you can just move to a two wheel bike with pedals. We will see how this theory works out. It makes sense to me but I only know of one child who has learned to ride this way. Simon had already gotten pretty good at it though. At first he could only walk it really really slow and often he would tip over completely, then he got faster and steadier. Then we encouraged him to place his left foot on the running board and just push with his right and he could do that for a few steps and now he is getting faster and faster at that (and it’s only been 4 days). He does love it so I am glad the gift was a hit. We also got it in a gender neutral color (like all of our trikes) so that Talia can use it next.
My cousins gave Simon this garbage truck and it was a huge hit.
Talia got an adorable handmade hat from Ashley, but for the most part she slept though Christmas : )
I bribed Simon to sing for the camera, but I didn’t lite it very well, sorry! It’s still cute
Simon Sings away in a manger from Emily Weaver Brown on Vimeo.
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Our “old” neighbors had a balance bike, and their son was riding a 2 wheeler w/o training wheels at 3 1/2. un.be.lieve.able. I have thought about getting one for our boys! Maybe we can find a used one on CL when we get to ABQ.
That was so cute, now did Simon get his chocolate for singing 🙂