foundation

Not yet having twigged that his birthday was four days ago, Edgar either worked out why both of us went into his room when he started his "IT'S GREEN! COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!" bellowing or successfully remembered that it had been two full sleeps since his most recent is-it-my-birthday-yet? at bedtime on Thursday evening. His inside legs were still two inches too few when the recommended lead-time for ordering a bike arrived in early December and were only just long enough when re-measured a couple of weeks ago, but some ordering-faff and not being here over the weekend had threatened to thwart the plans, though the wrong-sized bike was collected on Thursday when the proper-sized one was picked back up. We'd tried to work out which colour might be preferred using subtle questionings but in the end had to go for blue as that was all they'd have in the time available. He wanted to go straight to breakfast, eating quickly but not hurriedly, apparently not having quite remembered yet that there might be presents. I'd tucked my handlebarcamera behind the handlebars to catch his reaction for relatives. He paused and checked that it was his before starting to properly grin. It was an hour or so later before everyone was up and ready, with some small adjustments to the saddle and handlebars and the pedals removed so that he could balance-bike it around the house to get used to the different wheelbase and trail. On the way down the hill to the park he had a few goes at stopping with the brakes rather than his feet, then again going across the park where he was going a bit faster, as he tends to skid carefully down hills after an early wipeout on the balance bike. At the end of the path the pedals were reattached. The teeniest of pushes was all it took. In the morning he had a few pushes to start him off but was otherwise self-propelling, with two successful self-launches before we headed home after popping to the park. He wanted to go out again in the evening and mastered the process. Good wee boy.