A big step for Karina... and a big fall

Yeah! Karina has finally graduated from riding a tricycle to riding a regular bike with training wheels! We've been trying to encourage her to move up to the big bike for some time now, but she's always been hesitant. But when Brandy, and more specifically - Toby (the same age as Karina), came to visit last month, Karina saw Toby riding the bike and decided she was ready.

She's been doing great, but we're still working on really understanding the whole "brakes" concept. Her tricycle had no brakes, just one set of pedals you could more forward or backwards. Dragging your feet on the ground was the way to stop that one. With some work, she seems to be finally getting it, though!
Unfortunately, there's more to braking than just stopping. There's "slowing" without stopping. Yesterday we took a new ride for Karina and all rode our bikes to the school down the street to ride around the track. Karina has never made this ride on her own bike - just on the back of Daddy's bike. So we headed off to the school, and all was going perfectly!
Perfectly, that is, until... the hill.

As we started down the slow hill on the way to the school, I (Mark) was riding my bike on the sidewalk next to Karina and kept reminding her to keep her feet on the pedals and also pushing back on the brakes. But it wasn't meant to be.

She started to pick up speed, and like a slow-motion movie clip I saw the now-unavoidable begin to unfold before me. With her eyes widening in fear, her feet came off the pedals and began to drag on the ground in a futile attempt to slow down. I yelled for her to push the brakes as I attempted to speed up and steer my bike in front of hers so she could run into me and stop, but it was too late.

There was a chain-link fence along the inside of the sidewalk, and as she began to lose control she reached for the fence to grab hold of as a last-ditch effort to stop, but she was going too fast. She missed, and with one hand and no feet on her bike, the front wheel turned shaply and she went flying head-first over the handlebars. Her poor little face and forearms caught her on the ground as she slid on the sidewalk like a ball player sliding into home plate, and her helmet took the brunt on the fall but then popped off.

I dropped my bike, still in motion, and jumped down and scooped her up. She was shaken and a scratched up and the tears flowed freely, but after a little love and cuddles from Daddy and Mommy, she made us proud by getting right back on the bike without any hesitation. At the bottom of the hill, of course.



Great job, Karina! Way to keep going!