No Training Wheels!!

We introduced Henry to the balance bike about a year and a half ago.  Check him out in This Post last April.  He picked up on it right away and loved it.  He pretty much mastered it last summer, taking the bike down some pretty steep hills, and going on long rides with us.  So this year we thought we would possibly try taking the training wheels off his regular bike.  We mentioned it to him last week, but with the crappy weather we didn't know when we would actually do it.  Well tonight was randomly the night.  Henry asked Andy to take them off, he did, and this was his first time on his bike with no training wheels.  We had no idea what to expect, and didn't even really help him at all - he just took off!! 

After the first five minutes this was him:

And by the end of the night (2 hours later) we were riding around the block and he was going so fast that he was out of our sight (which made me real nervous).  

I don't remember it being quite this easy when I was trained.  I remember my dad running behind me down our street, falling a lot, and taking a little bit longer than one try.  I give all the credit to the balance bike - definitely a great purchase!  And it definitely helps that Henry has shown a ton of interest in it.  Another big milestone in the Schmidt household!! 

Oh - and the pink helmet is due to us forgetting his helmet at my parents house this past weekend.  Hannah was nice enough to share, and it didn't seem to bother Henry at all that he was wearing a pink helmet!