For months, Akiva has been telling me he needs a pedal bike. I don’t know what I was waiting for, not buying one for him. Finally, the day after his birthday, I looked on Kijiji. Akiva was pretty insistent that his bike have training wheels, so I found a cute little bike that seemed to come with training wheels. The following day, Martin picked up the bike after work. But when he brought the bike home, it turns out that the guy had given us the wrong training wheels! They wouldn’t fit the bike! Nonetheless, Akiva was so excited about the bike that he didn’t eat dinner. He couldn’t sleep. He got out of bed at 5am the next morning to work on the bike with Papa. Fortunately, it was a Saturday. They polished it and pumped up the tires and oiled the chain and gave it some good hugs. Before breakfast, they headed over to Claudia’s house to borrow the training wheels that had just come off Tabéa’s bike. But on the way to Claudia’s house, Akiva learned to ride the bike. Now he is a pro.

Today, Akiva rode the bike back and forth and back and forth and back and forth in front of the Yellow House. “I’m ready to get rid of the balance bike,” he said. We gave it to a neighbor. He’s had no regrets.