Thursday was just the greatest day ever!

Thursday was the greatest day ever at our house according to our 5-year-old grandson, and the day was pretty impressive to us too!

Why? It was a day of accomplishment and newfound freedom for our grandson. And it was a day for grandparents to be amazed once again by a child’s growth and success. Even though we have a host of offspring, it’s been a while since raising a youngster — and it wasn’t something we had planned to do in our “golden years.”

Anyway, we knew he could do it, but the thought of trying it was a bit frightening. But, early on Thursday morning, just after the sun had come up and lightened our driveway enough for him to ride his bicycle, Grandma convinced him to be brave and let Grandpa take the training wheels off. He agreed.

We’re not sure why because we tried to convince him before but he always said it would be “too scary” to try to ride without those stabilizing wheels there assuring him he would not dump over unless, of course, he went too fast or turned too sharply.

Seizing the opportunity, I removed the wheels and Grandma took him and his bicycle up the sidewalk to get him started. And a start was all he needed. He balanced like a pro and, with a few minutes of practice, was starting off on his own, too. In fact, when Grandma tried to help him get started again, he sent her away down the sidewalk, saying, “I got this, Grandma.”

And “get it” he did. By the end of the day, we were riding around Gentry, and I think he was better at balancing on his bike than Grandma and Grandpa were on theirs.

We knew he could do it if he just tried. He could balance perfectly on his scooter; and, a few months ago, I raised up his training wheels to allow him to learn to balance on his bicycle and lean into turns. We’d often watched him ride the straightaway sidewalk and even turn circles in the driveway without that extra set of wheels ever touching the ground. He was ready but just needed to be brave enough to give it a try.

The proud smile on our grandson’s face as he rode his bicycle without training wheels made Thursday a great day for Grandma and Grandpa too. It was amazing to see what a little encouragement, bravery and self-confidence could do.

I did, however, figure it would be kind of embarrassing if one of us old folks took a spill while our new rider performed flawlessly. And there was a time or two on our family ride when we came close. Grandma and I hadn’t ridden for a while and the need to reinflate our bicycle tires before a family ride was evidence of our slackness in regard to the regular rides we had planned to take when we purchased the bicycles some time ago.

Yes, Thursday was a great day, a day of accomplishment for a 5-year-old boy and a day for grandparents to be proud of an amazing grandson.

I expect we won’t need the training wheels again and will have a couple of sets to put up when I take them off the larger bike we had purchased for another grandson. Is there any reason to save them? I know our 5-yearold won’t want them back. I could get rid of them but, then again, I’ve learned never to say never when it comes to raising more children.

Perhaps I should see if they would work on Grandpa and Grandma’s bikes, just as a precaution.