love you forever, like you for always: baths and bikes

we've really gotten into riding bikes down our street the last week or so...Lincoln got a new "big kid" bike and is absolutely in LOVE with it. He learned how to ride it within hours of getting it home, but because "he's a Lincoln" it took us almost 3 days to teach him to stop! He would ride down the hill as fast as his little legs could turn and then scream STOP and try to put his feet down. anyone who has ridden a bike knows that if you are going fast enough your feet don't work very well at helping you stop (only at throwing you off the bike and into the street). After several bad crashes he decided it was time to slow down and listen to mom and dad about learning to stop...now he's got the hang of it!

Meanwhile, Avery could not stand it that her little brother was riding better than she was. Ave has had her bike for awhile, but being my overly cautious girl that she is, never wanted to ride because she 'might' fall off. However, over the last few days I have been teaching her to ride and last night she got it. AVERY CAN RIDE HER BIKE WITH NO TRAINING WHEELS!!!!!! amazing to me, and she is so proud of herself! after her last successful ride, we were walking into the house and she says, "This IS the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad...that I can ride my bike!" hilarious! I don't have any pictures of her on her bike as I have been the one running up and down the street with her

Bath time...over the last year we have been taking less and less baths (Avery and Lincoln that is) because well, baths take longer, make mom kneel and bend over and when we have busy, fun-filled evenings are just harder to get done. that means that instead we have been taking showers, which is a plus cause I can get cleaned up too and it is faster...however, there isn't really time/opportunity to play like there is in the bath tub. As much as I like the ease of the shower, I am sad that the expereince of bathtime is getting skipped. when avery was little it used to be an event to look forward to...bathtime was a whole process that took up much of our evening after supper and involved buckets of toys and lots of giggling. I am going to make a real effort to slow things down and let my little guys still be little and enjoy their baths...