A New Pace

As a parent I am often confronted by humbling moments.
I like to think that I am somewhat flexible, open minded and maintain healthy set expectations:  hair needs to be brushed.  so do teeth.  it is not okay to lie, but it is okay to keep surprises (Please don't tell Dad about the t-shirt we picked up for his birthday today... ) We navigate a foggy world of boundaries, social norms and appropriate behaviors.  I don't expect to always be right, even when arguing with a four year old.  Sometimes her arguments have a certain kind of logic and once I realize that logic I agree with her, just like I try to help her see my logic and hope she will do what I am asking of her.  But, sometimes, in spite of or maybe because of myself that there comes a moment when I so vastly underestimate what my child really is capable of.

I had one of those moments this Monday.

We were leaving a friend's house after hanging out for hours, and as I was setting Sylvan in his stroller seat she mentioned that there was a bike her daughter had out grown.  Ivory immediately ran over and began tugging it out of the pile of family bikes.  I eyed her pink strider laying in the grass and could not imagine how I would carry a bike home.
"Ivory, can we please come back for the bike?"
She pulled and pulled and pulled..  finally separating it from the other children's bikes.
"Fine.  You try and ride it.  If you can ride it you can take it home."
She was elated at that proposition, all though I was just hoping to put an end to this idea that we were taking the bike home at that moment.
"I know I can ride it.  I know I can."
She pushes the bike out of the yard.  Her two friends ahead of her on their bikes, my friend and I following behind with our sleeping little ones.  She hopped on, pushed, balanced, placed her feet on the petals, rode down the block and then rode her new bike all the way home.
She only stopped to turn around and tell me: "I told you that I could ride a petal bike."

My husband and I stood there watching her ride up and down the path on are yard, both happy and proud and a little tiny bit of something else.  "I didn't even get to give her a push", he said wistfully. "You never quite understand what they mean when they say that kids grow up too fast until it's happening in front of your eyes."

Our lives move at a new pace now.
Tuesday we made it to and from the library in record time.
Ivory looks for every excuse possible to go an a walk, so she can ride her bike just a little bit more.  She is confident, self aware and able and I hope she takes that with her in life, at what ever pace that may be, even if we aren't quite ready.