today was a great day...i got home last night after being gone for three and a half weeks and i was so happy to sleep in my own bed. this morning i was doing my favorite thing, just sitting on my front porch with my wife drinking a cup of strong black coffee watching our sons ride their scooters on our driveway and enjoying the cool minnesota air. my oldest son soren informs me that he is so ready to learn how to ride a bike with out training wheels, so i get a wrench and proceed to take the training wheels off his bike. i tell him to put on his helmet, knee and elbow pads and give him a fatherly speech about not giving up and try trying again, basically getting him ready for reality that he might not learn to ride a bike the first time. he is four years old and i tell him that some kids don't learn to ride a bike until they are five or six. my son tells me that he will have no trouble riding his "steel horse". i lower his seat and tell him to get on the bike and start to pedal. he proceeds to ride down the street like he has done it a million times, like he was just waiting for me to come home so that i could be the one to teach him. shortly after this he rides around the block and by the time we get back to our house he is trying to pop a wheely!!! who is this kid? the morning sun was shining and a cold breeze was blowing and it felt so good to be home and it felt even better to be the one to teach my son to ride a bike! this is one of those huge moments for a father, to teach your son to ride a bike is one of those things that is so simple to you but so big and exciting for your child, it is like a sixteen year old with a license tasting indepedance for the first time. then i started thinking about all of it...and i realized that it wasn't too long ago that i was holding my oldest son, the child that made me a father in the first place mind you... it wasn't too long ago that i was starring into the eyes of this fragile little child that i had never met before but was now instantly grafted into every memory i had ever had. now i am running next to him trying to keep up with him on his bike...it came so fast. it is just so beautiful to see these events in my children's lives unfold before my eyes! i am so honored! i am usually kind of a private person but this morning was too beautiful even for me to keep secret.
t.
