Big Bed, Big Bike, and (Sniff) Big Boy

At three years, four months, Joey is finally shedding some of the last vestiges of babyhood... his binky and his crib. I'm not sure who is more traumatized this week, me or Joey! Losing two of my most powerful parenting tools in one fell swoop may lead me to drink.

On Monday, after a grumpy, binky-less morning, and a grumpy, binky-less nap, both of which involved a lot of sobbing ("I'm NOT a big boy, I'm a BAAAAAYBY!!"), we headed to the bike store, where, as a reward for giving up his binky, we planned to upgrade Joey from trike to ... BIKE!

Our little moose has become absolutely obsessed with his two tricycles. We've been taking the "outside motorcycle" along with us on all our playground trips (and Joey has suddenly become that little boy who zooms around like a maniac, imperiling toddlers and other moms), while the "inside motorcycle" stays at home, allowing Joey (and Clara in her makeshift sidecar) to terrorize the dogs as they do lap after lap in the family room and garage.

Joey immediately saw the light as soon as we were in the bike store. Leaving behind tricycles and all other babyish things for good, he approached the row of "big bikes" with awe, and started sampling them all. His knees were knocking against the handlebars on the 12" bike that kids typically start with, so his new 16" bike looks like it belongs to a seventh grader. It's a touch too big for him right now, but he gamely climbed on, and steered his way around the whole store, suffering only one collision. He gained a lot of street cred with the sales guy for toughing that out and climbing right back on. (By the way, the staff at Sports Basement in the Presidio were amazingly helpful! They assembled the whole bike for us, which Tim LOVED!, and then kept adjusting and fine-tuning until it was a perfect fit for Joey.)

Here he is trying out the 12" bike, while they assembled the bigger one:


Clara really wanted to join the fun, and tried to convince us that she was ready for a big bike, too ;)

She'll have to live with hand-me-downs for now... no more joyrides in the trike basket! She's ready to pedal herself :)

Stay tuned for more big boy adventures: the bedding (and waterproof mattress pad) have been ordered for Joey's new full-size bed!