Tuesday, December 16, 2008

2 firsts

The other day Dane experienced a couple of "firsts".

1: Very traumatic, Dane shut his own finger in the van door outside of Papa Murphy's. I was on the other side buckling Peter in when he let out the scream and I could see that his finger was stuck in the door. It seemed like it took 10 minutes for me to get around to other side to open the door and save my poor child. It was so sad. He was very upset to say the least. I feared the worst, but realized very quickly that the damage was very mild, only a bit of a skin tear. It took him until we could get home and get some neosporin and a bandade on it and a few minutes rest on the couch to get over that. Later as he told Dad the story he said, "Yeah, I shut my finger in the van door and Mom rescued it". Yeah Mom!

2: Dane learned to ride his bike without training wheels!!! We have tried off and on all summer with absolutely no luck. This last most beautiful day of the year and he wanted to try again. A kind neighbor stopped and gave me a very helpful piece of advice and within a minute Dane was off on his own! I haven't seen him have this much fun in a long time. He became totally obsessed with it. Sadly, 48 hours later there was 6 inches of snow on the ground with no hope of bike riding until spring. He has finally stopped asking about it. I think the reality of the snow=no bike riding is kicking in.
Here is the helpful tip, in case any of you will be teaching your kid to ride a bike. Lower the seat until both feet can be flat on the ground. Then they can just catch themselves easily and get the confidence they need. I can't believe how quickly it worked!



Making a gingerbread house with Grandma and Grandpa. Peter spent most of his time eating, and all Dane wants is for Christmas to be over so that he can start eating the gingerbread house. We'll see how that goes!

4 comments:

Nelson said...

Ouch!
I know you are secretly a super hero, that's how you were able to rescue the finger.
Yeah for Dane! Great tip, I will remember that one for the future.
Love the gingerbread house. Love the Downs family. Can I be adopted?

Heidi said...

Oh sad for Dane!

Your gingerbread house is very impressive. It definitely looks good enought to eat.

Amylee said...

I've done that before and I have the scar to prove it. Poor guy! I can't believe Dane can ride a bike without training wheels- he should still be in nursery!!!

maugers said...

I'm so glad you left this address on our blog! I'll have to get Dave to take a look at your HUGE boys! They are really cute, and that's awesome that Dane's riding a bike already. Al is way too cautious and doesn't even like to do the training wheels bike...he's still more comfortable with tricycles. It's killing Dave :) Have a merry christmas!!!