Big Boy Bike!!

Do you remember where you were when you got your first bike? I do. I was in my grandparent's basement. Mom and Dad had hidden my bike in Grandpa's bar room, and I was in the living room when they wheeled it out! It was Rainbow Bright with a banana seat and a baby seat on the back for my Cabbage Patch Kid. My second bike? At the grandparents' house again, swimming. Mom and Dad put my bike in the driveway and I had to walk around the side of the house to see it. It was purple and big and wonderful! Adam can tell you all about his Christmas with his something GT....a fiasco for his parents trying to return one bike and buy him another one b/c his best friend had gotten the bike HE wanted the day before and now Adam didn't want the same bike, he wanted a better one! Ha!

Well, we knew it was time for Jackson to get a big boy bike. He's been riding his 3-wheeler all around the block for a while with no problem, and we thought it would be easier for going on walks with a big bike. So we'd been prepping him for about a month that he might get a big boy bike for his birthday.

The problem: all the big boy bikes at the stores are in boxes. How were we to know what size bike he could handle?

On Monday, when we got back from TN, we took him to a real bike shop here in Clear Lake: Bike Barn so that he could sit on one. He'd never been on a bike before, so we weren't even sure he would know what to do with one!

Well, we were shocked to say the least! The guy at the store was super nice and pulled down a 12" bike...Jackson put one foot on the pedal, swung his leg over, and took off around the counter and through the store! He barreled past us and ran into a display of helmets! I told him "To stop, you just have to pedal backwards!" The sales guy pulled down an awesome 16" bike and said "He would probably be better on this bigger one. He knows what to do and he'll outgrow that little one in no time. Those little ones are for kids who have no clue what they are doing and are just starting out...." So, Jackson hops on the 16" and takes off! This time, stopping on cue and leaving a skid mark on the tile floor! HA!

The cool this about the bikes were that they had matching helmets (which of course, I love!!) We had told ourselves that we were NOT spending that much on a bike, we just wanted to size them out. We also told Jackson that he had to save all his money to buy one, that we had already gotten him a gift, and that he would have to be nice and save and someday, he'd have enough to get one. Suprisingly, that went over pretty well, and we were able to leave the store. On the way home, he said to us " Momma, some things cost me so much monies...." 3 years old and you are ALREADY figuing this out! I'm so proud!!

We got home, with the intention of going to Target and Academy and checking prices and sizes, when I got a brilliant idea to check the reviews online before going all over town....good thing I did! The reviews on some of those bikes at Target and Toys R Us are AWFUL! They are too heavy, they break, the plastic rots, the tires rust...and, those bikes were only about $100 less and would turn to crap in about a year....so relunctantly, I convinced myself to invest in the top of the line bike, knowing that baby #2 will be riding it as well....we headed back to Bike Barn and got the yellow Specialized Hotrock and the coolest Lance Armstrong Yellow helmet!!

Jackson fell asleep on the way home from the 1st trip, so we dropped him off at GGs before we went back to buy the bike. We congered up a plan on how to give him the bike, stopped by Randalls and bought a small cake, called Mom to have her order some pizzas....and the story goes like this:

We decorated a box, quickly, and stuck the bike in it. We set it in the middle of MeMaw and PaPaw's driveway and called GG to have her and Jackson walk down. Sorry, there are a TON of pics....and the video tells the rest:






















































Needless to say, he was SOOOO excited. A little speechless, as you can tell! And he's been on that thing ever since Monday! We've rode it to Memaw and Papaw's already (Mommy only makes it TO there house and has to be driving home....) and it's been GREAT excersize for Adam b/c he has to RUN next to Jackson to keep up! He's too happy about it! Jackson has woken up 3 days in a row, come into my room, and says "Hi Momma! We can go look at my new bike? See if it's still down there?!" Apparently, he's dreaming about that fabulous yellow bike!!