23 | May | 2009 | BarelyControlledChaos

Once upon a time there was a fair maiden, who at the ripe old age of two, got her very first bike from her grandma, Queen Debby.

Our Princess E. was really quite interested in the trike…

…but preferred to be pushed around on said tricycle by King Daddy, and didn’t really ever get the “hang of” pedaling the wee bike.

Time went by, another princess, Princess A., was born into the family and the princesses’ aunt, Duchess Meesh, decided that it was time for Princess E. to receive a “big-maiden” bike and pass along the trike to Princess A.

This time it was Queen Mommy who ran along beside Princess E. and tried desperately to help her steer down the right path. But even with the training wheels, Princess E. never really seemed to be too interested in bike riding.

More time went by, (but no more princesses were born into the family!) and Princess A. was given a “big-maiden” bike complete with training wheels by a friend, and Princess E. started to ride her own bike fairly well.

So Queen Mommy removed the training wheels in hopes that her Princess E. would learn to ride sans-training wheels. But, alas, Princess E. just took over Princess A.’s new bike (which still had training wheels on it) instead. Occasionally Princess E. and Queen Mommy would take her training wheel-less bike out for a “run” but it usually ended in the Princess madly exclaiming, “BUT YOU PROMISED YOU WOULDN’T LET GO!” And she would return to the second bike that still had the training wheels.

Then one afternoon King Daddy coaxed the Princess into easing through the courtyard BY HERSELF with NO TRAINING WHEELS. And it was decided that the “big maiden” bike was just simply not big enough. Our princess had grown two very long legs. And knees…that kept hitting the handlebars.

So a new, even bigger “big maiden” bike was purchased. And it just seemed too big for the Princess. So the training wheels went back on this newest bike.

But ‘lo – cousins and friends from villages afar, and schoolmates who live nearby, were all learning how to ride their bikes. And that may have just been the push that our Princess E. needed.

Last week, it finally clicked. First, on the training wheel-less bike. Princess E. finally understood the glorious feeling of the wind in her hair as she biked round and round the park. Only stopping when it was mandated by Queen Mommy “time for bath!”