many milestones

cosmo is riding a two wheeler. now, with pedals! two days ago, he sat on the bike he got for his fourth birthday (back in november, thanks nani and papa!), to find out if his feet touch the ground yet. they did. then we went out to try to ride.

and he rode.
just like that.



okay, so...there was cotton candy involved, but he picked it up so fast, it blew my mind. he was riding, and i was actually stopping him, out of...well...fear. my own fear, that is. he loved it! he kept saying, "let go, mom, let go now." it made him giddy, the way learning to read made him giddy. the next night, we tried again, and it was as though he had been riding his whole life. in a way, he has. for nearly half of his life, anyway. he got a balance bike when he was two and a half, and became proficient on it rather quickly. it rides so much like a regular two wheeler, the jump to a pedal bike is pretty smooth. plus, he has been riding behind my bike, or carl's bike, on the trail-a-bike since early spring. that has pedals, but we do the balancing. the balancing and the pedaling all fell into place this week, and he got it.



yesterday, we walked our bikes (and rode a little) several blocks to the b-line trail, and then rode the trail all the way up to city hall. the trail is so relaxing, with no traffic to worry about. today, we loaded up all of our bikes, and headed out to the clear creek trail. there we rode for nearly 5 miles total, on a lovely paved trail that follows the creek. the temperatures were in the seventies, with low humidity...absolutely perfect. he's getting really good at using his hand brake, and getting out of the way when others approach. it's wonderful.



he's also making great strides in swim class. he floated on his back for the first time, on his own, with the help of a life jacket (rather than the swim teacher)

and, cosmo and justin figured out vision, a complicated room escape, computer game that they've been working on for quite a while. it was a delight to hear him tell the story of their accomplishment, in elaborate detail.



i also took him to his very first movie-in-a-theatre (not counting the cry-baby-matinee in houston, when he was 2 or 3 months old). we saw toy story 3. it was a great way to spend two hours, in the heat of the day last week, and he really enjoyed it.



in other milestone news, cosmo read pond, by lizi boyd, to carl and i, at bedtime. it is an extremely simple board book, with only a few words on each page, and reads like a poem. cosmo has read much more difficult texts, but it was particularly moving to me, because it is one of three books that we read to cosmo each and every night when he was a baby/toddler--when we were establishing bedtime rituals. carl and i pretty much have it memorized, and it holds a special place in our hearts. to hear his sweet little four-year-old voice reading those familiar words was heartbreakingly precious.