Before I had a child and even way before I was married, I would daydream about what "it" all would be like. You know; family life. After all, daydreaming is what consumes nearly every spare minute of my time and with my aberrant imagination, I think I'm pretty good at it. I pictured my future husband (who of course had to be handsome and charming) and I devoting our weekends to the aisles at Home Depot, picking out paint colors for our first home. While painting said house, we would dab paint on each other's noses and think it was cute and giggle over how silly and in love we were. I had these visions of myself holding my baby in a rocking chair with said handsome husband standing by my side, hand on my shoulder, smiling slightly while soaking it all in with copious amounts of adoration for us. I pictured us all picnicking in the mountains, basking in the sun and frolicking in the meadow and bending down every few minutes to pick a wildflower to press between my Steinbeck novel. And let's not forget about all the "firsts" in life: I daydreamed about baby's first steps, about our first soccer game/dance recital attendance and most definitely...about my child learning to ride their bike for the first time. I pictured this said event in the front of our first home - that was neatly painted with silly love and while said adoring handsome husband cheered on said child who was wearing some sort of shirt I made from dried wildflowers. Today I realized two things: 1) that life is not a distorted sitcom from the 50's and 2) that while some dreams do come true (I got the adoring handsome husband at least!), there are also some that don't.
Teaching (by myself, mind you!) my 3 yr. old to ride a bike in the aisle at Wal-Mart was definitely never an image I concocted and then enjoyed revisiting in my head. Never. I didn't want it this way and my head is still trying to accept it's unconventionality.
(p.s. don't you love the boots!)
At least it's done and the skill has been learned! He did a great job and regardless of how and where it happened, the look on his face was still quite dreamy! He was so happy and pride radiated from his beaming smile! We will be pricing out bikes tomorrow and purchasing one for the little guy. At last, I can act out my long time fantasy of family bike rides around the neighborhood while waving to everyone pruning their rose gardens on warm summer days and then coming home and cooling off with fresh squeezed mint basil lemonade! How perfectly exciting! And Wes, if you ever dab paint on my nose thinking it's cute and silly, I will spit on you and then cry.
