One day last week there was a note in Caroline’s take home folder with detailed information about the upcoming Bike Rodeo. And I immediately put my head between my knees until I could catch my breath because February has been the month of school that wants me to die. It’s such a short month, yet so full of Valentine’s Day crafts and President’s Day book reports and 100 days of school projects. What about my time? How am I supposed to find time to study my eyebrows in the magnifying mirror when I’m constantly having to run to the store to buy more rubber cement?
And I can’t even talk about last Thursday when I was supposed to send Caroline to school with a teddy bear since they were discussing Teddy Roosevelt and I totally forgot. It was a morning that had already started off wrong because I had the nerve to put her hair in a ponytail and she WANTED BRAIDS which caused her to collapse into tears. I honestly thought she must be getting sick because why else would she act so whiny and weepy. So I proceeded to question her about a possibility of a sore throat or ear pain, only to face the sad reality that her only real ailment was a bad case of DRAMA QUEEN.
So I dropped her off at school, made myself a cup of hot choffee, and was contemplating if I wanted to ruin my morning with the 30 Day Shred when Caroline’s teacher called on my cell phone. “Melanie? We’re having a little bit of a meltdown situation here.”
“Oh no. What’s wrong?” (See? She was sick. That’s why she was acting so whiny. She probably had developed a fever and everything.)
“They were supposed to bring a teddy bear to school this morning and Caroline doesn’t have one.”
Dang.
I grabbed three teddy bears from the playroom (because nothing makes me overcompensate like some motherhood guilt) and drove up to the school where I made the walk of shame down the first grade hallway bearing (I’m so sorry) my three bears. Caroline was thrilled by my guest appearance at school and didn’t seem to be fazed by the fact that I was wearing my shameful purple velour sweatpants that make me look like Grimace. She chose one of the bears for herself and another one for a classmate whose mother had also forgotten the bear.
And I realize the teddy bear incident is a small thing in the whole scheme of life and disappointments. In fact, I’m not even sure why I’m recounting it in such detail because the most disturbing point is that it was just further proof that my memory is swiftly fading. I don’t even know that Sudoku can help me now, especially because I don’t understand how to do Sudoku.
We have some very dear friends who were expecting their second child last week. And we knew it. I’d even left a message on her Facebook wall that said, “Haven’t you had that baby yet? What’s the deal?” because people who haven’t been pregnant in almost seven years think that kind of thing is HILARIOUS. But yet, I received a text on Wednesday afternoon that read “4 centimeters dilated. Should be later today.” and I could not figure out who on earth would text me a message about labor. I nearly texted them back to say, “You have the wrong number, but good luck with the new baby!” before my brain slowly began to compute all the correct information.
But none of that has anything to do with the Bike Rodeo and that’s where I was headed about six hundred words ago.
Caroline got a new big girl bike for Christmas from Mimi and Bops. You may remember the following picture that would have been a precious memory if only my Dad’s head would have made the cut.
However, since this has been a winter that would cause people in Seattle to feel depressed, we haven’t had the opportunity to really get her out on the bike. It also doesn’t help that we don’t really live in a bike-friendly neighborhood for the beginning cyclist. There are lots of hills and virtually no sidewalks which means that to ride the bike requires that we transport the bike to another location and see how it all starts to get too complicated when she is just as happy to ride her scooter which fits neatly in the trunk of my car?
She made it abundantly clear that she must participate in the Bike Rodeo because everyone gets a ribbon and she has never been one to pass up an opportunity for an accolade of any sort. So I began to look at the Bike Rodeo checklist to see what we needed (a bell! a bike light! basic bike maintenance!) and realized that P needed to be in charge of the Bike Rodeo portion of the parenting journey.
Yesterday after church, we drove up to an empty parking lot so she could practice riding her new big girl bike. And she fell. Twice. There were tears and drama and wringing of hands, not to mention that Caroline was pretty upset also.
She decided she wanted to quit. She didn’t want to be in the Bike Rodeo after all. And I began to have newfound respect for all those mothers of Olympians because how did Shaun White’s mother handle it when he wiped out and vowed to be done with snowboarding? When do you let your kid quit and when do you make them keep on trying? Where’s the line between encouragement and being a Bike Rodeo stage mother?
P whispered to me, “What do we do? Do we let her quit?” And I gathered up all my maternal stores of wisdom and replied, “I don’t know”.
Ultimately, we told her she needed to ride for a few more minutes because we didn’t want to end on a bad note and then asked if she wanted to go visit the Bike Store and see if they had a bell and a bike light. She did and so we picked up a purple bell, a purple bike light and a new purple bike helmet.
And she was so thrilled with her new bike accessories that she begged to stop on the way home so she could ride her bike some more. I’ve always believed that sometimes a girl just needs some new accessories to give her spirits a lift and it worked like a charm. She rode her bike over and over again with new enthusiasm, ringing her little bell as she went.
Who knows? One of these days she might even let us take off the training wheels.
But I’ll need to take a nerve pill first.
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She looks so fabulous on her bike and you had me in tears with your humor. I almost woke up my sleeping husband by laughing so hard. We had 8, 13 years olds spend the night Friday night and one of the grandfather’s told my husband to take a nerve pill too…but thankfullly we didn’t need it and the house is still standing. Thanks for sharing the joy with all of us; you make blog land such a delightful place to be. Blessings to you!
I was just heading off to bed and pulled this up. I am laughing so hard right now, I don’t believe I can sleep! Bike Rodeo memories very similar to this belong to me and my family. Funny and trying times for sure! Once we actually went to the city Bike Rodeo – major stress! I’m glad those days are over.
Now how long will it take for one of your followers to say “Bike Rodeo?? What the heck is that?”
Why on EARTH do teachers ask kids to do “homework” that everyone knows is really for the parents? I’m pretty sure I all ready graduated from school, thankyouverymuch.
)
And take the pedals off when you take the training wheels off – teach her coasting first, and she’ll learn to balance before she has to figure out the pedal part!
http://antiquemommy.com/2008/09/16/what-a-difference-a-day-makes/
Oh bike meltdowns…
The first time my daughter sat on her bike with training wheels, it wobbled. That wobbled caused a bike boycott for almost a year. She still would rather ride her tricycle!
You had me laughing as usual. Thanks for a happy start to my sleepy Monday morning!
This so sounds like my third grader. I swear she has been dramatic since the day she was born. As she gets older the drama is a bit less intense, but appears more often. As soon as I pick her up from school, she begins her dramatic interpretations of her (and her classmate’s) daily happenings. Exhausting, but always interesting!
I too live with girl drama (well, besides my own).
I have an 8 year old daughter.
That’s all I need to say
To funny
Shawn White was probably snow boarding before he could start so you are way to far behind the game. But you got a pretty good start for maybe the Senior Olympics. That is what this nation is missing. Televised Senior Olympics. Can you imagine 
Ok so just wondering…you were tramatised that she fell and she still has training wheels
So So funny. You crack me up. So were you or P riding behind her holding the seat with her training wheels because one peice of parental advice you really only have to do that when the training wheels are OFF 
jK
that was supposed to read start walking before…to early in the morning
GRIMACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hahaha seriously, you crack me up. Have I mentioned that a few times? I sound like a broken record in your comments!
“The fine line between encouragement and being a stage mother”
Bahahahahaha!
(let me know if you have any further advice on discerning it… I frequently question which side I’m standing on.)
Great post.
Love Love Love the picture of Caroline – with the look of triumph – riding on her bling’d out bike! AWESOME! Hysterical post! I think my 6 year old will have training wheels until he’s 10. Lord help us all!
Funny!…. I have some wisdom for you. My Dad did this for us 40 yrs ago for us,and we did it with our kids. When it comes time to take the training wheels off, have her ride her bike in the yard. It is full of little bumps etc., but if she falls, it doesn’t hurt as much,and she won’t take off layers of skin! She can also learn how to manuever around trees and stuff. THEN, when she’s feeling more confident, she can head to the sidewalk or whatever, and it will seem so easy, because it’s so much smoother than the grass! Hope it works, and have fun!
The bike and teddy bear stories are cute, but I just really need you to know that the school is killing me this February too. In addition to the things you mentioned, we had to come up with an Amelia Earhart costume and a presentation on her life. The fun just never ends around here.
Oh, the mommy guilt!! I get a bad case of that every so often.
What is it with kids and bike drama? My 4 year old got her first bike for her birthday and was beside herself when her daddy could only find a purple and pink helmet and not an ALL PINK helmet. She held off on riding for about 2 weeks until she finally couldn’t stand it anymore. Meh.
That last photo is a great one…no heads cut off or anything!
PS. I don’t know how to do Sudoku either…I’m not even really sure what it is. Looks like a crossword puzzle with numbers. I try to stay away with anything having to do with numbers. Unless it is a sale tag. :s
The bike riding drama is preparation for the car riding drama you will deal with later. And you will for sure need a nerve pill or ten for that!
Like mother, like daughter! Get her some accessories and she is good to go. That was hysterical. I knew it was coming though … I just new the bell and the helmet would work!
Melanie! I must be reeealllly slow, but I realized something today. Everything in Texas is a Rodeo, isn’t it? I mean today you talked about a Bike Rodeo, last week you and Gulley took the kids to ummmm, some-other-kind of Rodeo. Here in Missouri we call those kind of things Carnivals. Fairgrounds are carnivals, the kids have school carnivals etc. I wonder what these things are called in the northeast part of the country???
I’m such a slacker mom when it comes to school stuff that I envision my girls’ teachers shaking their heads and rolling their eyes any time my name is mentioned. (in all actuality, my name is probably NEVER mentioned)
I did make it to Ava’s “Brazil Festival” last Friday, and one of the moms stopped me and said, “I haven’t seen you in forever. I KNEW you wouldn’t be at International Night. It’s like the Tavianos just rebel against anything that has to do with school.”
Um, hi. Nice to see you too.
thank God for accessories! sometimes they are a pain but they do make girls happy!
I wanted to comment on what you said at the beginning… but it seems it already slipped my memory
Have a great week! Love the fashionista cyclist!
She looks adorable on her new beautiful bike! My daughter is begging me to put her training wheels back on, but I think 8 is a little big. Maybe by the time she’s twenty-eight she’ll learn to ride!
Good mommy move to buy a bell.
-FringeGirl
You are not alone…on any of the issues listed in your post. I’ll give a couple of examples:
1) Austin’s kindergarten year…each kid gets assigned a “snack day.” Mine happened to fall on April 15th. Luckily, Austin’s fabulous teacher realized that for a CPA, that is D-Day, so she didn’t even send home the reminder note. She just whipped up a batch of marshmallow treats, just in case. When snack time came around, Austin was very upset as he realized that he did not enter school with the snack. She told him that I had dropped them off for the class. He looked at her, looked down at the treats, then asked, “Are you sure my mom made those?” Yeah, that kids knows I haven’t made those since I was 10 and thought I was going to be Betty Crocker when I grew up. So the lovely teacher, called me and fessed up, so that we could get our stories straight when he got home.
2) We have this Midnight Madness Bike Ride thing here, and after the divorce, I thought it would be a great way to bond with the boys. We meet at the park and ride 14.5 miles around the city from 10pm-midnight. Of course, it always falls on baseball night, so we have to FLY home from the game, change clothes, and ride like the wind to the park. THEN we are at the back of the pack, which is completely unacceptable for the boys, so we have to continue to ride at the speed of light weaving in and out of those leisurely bikers to find their pack of friends. But the real panic is between 9:30-10pm, when I am in the garage frantically airing up tires and installing bike lights, cuz why be prepared? It’s only a couple of weeks after April 15th, so I plead insanity.
And sadly, I send emails to people daily, and by the time that they respond, which might only be 10 minutes later, I have no idea why they are emailing me. I have moved on. I live by my calendar, and my doctors/dentists know that it’s just not uncommon for me to miss an appointment the first two times I schedule it. The only one I remember faithfully is my therapist. Enough said.
Ok, hold on…I have scrolled up through some of the other comments, and someone mentioned car drama. I am literally sitting at my desk laughing and remembering some car drama. I won’t mention any names, but I remember when a particular someone got her first ticket on Gladys, and was SO UPSET and crying so hard that I had to drive the CRX home.
Get ready.
Too cute! Just wanted to second the idea to take the pedals off when she goes without training wheels………or you can just be lazy like me and tell her to coast without bothering to take the pedals off. Like you, we don’t live in a bike friendly neighborhood, but one with what would be considered mountains in Texas. I taught my kids to ride their bikes inside of the garage using the coasting method. When I got over my laziness and loaded all 4 bikes (3 for the kids, and 1 for me) into the van, the kids were so excited how about how well they could ride on the flat ground. Hey, if you can manage to learn to balance and pedal all while continually going in a small circle in the garage, straight aways are a breeze!
i forgot teddy bear day last week too !!! — mommy brain at it’s best
Precious post!
But I do have to say, there will come a day where Caroline will wish that her biggest problem was whether to have a braid or pony tail or that she doesn’t have a teddy bear for school. How I so wish I could coudl back to those days, ha!
This made me laugh out loud. I woke up at 2:30 this morning (I thought it was 5:30 or 6…I soon realized it wasn’t) and read it in my reader on my Blackberry and decided to read it again on a normal computer just now and I still thought it was funny. Thanks for sharing the ups and downs of parenthood and for allowing us to laugh along with you.
We are laughing WITH you right?!?
That was just great! Have a good Monday!
Whew…so glad I’m not the only one that is winging it in the parenting world! When to let them quit…how to discipline…how to handle the melt downs caused by the bad case of DRAMA. So glad I’m not the only one!!
Good luck with the Bike Rodeo…you might want to take a nerve pill before you go!
If it makes you feel any better, my daughter could not ride her bike until she was 11 years old. I tried to get her to ride to no avail… Maybe if I would have gotten her some of those fancy accessories she would have ridden sooner? Peer pressure finally got to her. She was tired of making excuses as to why she could not go for a bike ride.
Bikes and teddy bears, gotta love it! Those were the days huh?
Believe me, I feel your pain. Caroline looks amazing on her newly accessorized bike. I can’t believe you all are wearing shorts and I’m here staring at a few feet of snow piled up along side the road. Oh well, when summer comes and we are 20 degrees cooler, come on up!
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAH!!! I sympathize with the FB-to-text problem! My mind does not compute! Where the message was left is where the reply should go!
Advice for when you take the training wheels off? Take her to a park that has a grassy hill. On the parking lot, my son had a death grip on me and would not let go. But I took him to a grassy hill, put his bike half-way down and let him go. He did that about three times, took him to the top and he went down to the bottom on his own, did it again and that time he went down the hill, across the baseball diamond, and all the way across to the other side. After that, it was no turning back. I let him ride on the baseball diamond for about an hour – it was easy to ride on and if he fell (which he did) it would not be a big deal. We did that for several more days and he was instantly a confident pro – amazing since I had spent the last 18 months dealing with his tears and sulking through our attempted bike lessons.
sometimes a girl just needs some new accessories to give her spirits a lift
No truer words have ever been spoken!!!
If you start a club, I would LOVE to join the My Memory is Fading Club. My husband has learned to accept the fact that my brain just cannot hold the price I paid for gas. For the life of me, I cannot ever remember what gas costs. I tell my dear husband that my brain is already full, and so he’ll just need to tell me which gas station routinely has the cheapest gas. I’m happy to go to that station. I just won’t be held responsible if that station suddenly hikes up their prices. Because I’ll never know. I just swipe my card and think, “Wow, that seems like a lot of money for a tank of gas…”
Why recount the seemingly mundane Teddy Bear incident?… why because all us moms and dads and grandmoms and so on and people who know these people are out here living this stuff and laughing about it KEEPS US SANE! (she says with her eyes popping and wringing her hands.)
You are so funny and it’s just what I needed to read before going to bed (over here on my side of the world).
I love a bike rodeo! I’m not sure if it’s the same thing, but Kate had a bike parade in her 3 year old classroom. I really need to post those pictures…it was too funny. I think the best part was the kid that brought his Spiderman bike complete with the tags and flat tires. My husband Kevin just ended up pushing him around the track to keep him from crying.
This was a good laugh of the day.
I hope I don’t give you the impression that your parenting blunders make me feel so much better about mine. Well, they do. But you’ve offered much more than that, of course.
Besides, I bet Caroline had supper the night before. Didn’t she? I bet you never forgot “that”.
For what it’s worth, some might consider me a “serious cyclist” – the kind who rides 1,000 miles in three months in the summer in order to train for a 100 mile in one day ride. But the reality is, I only ride for the cute outfits. That’s basically the only reason I can come up with for sports.
I have soooo been there with the forgotten teddy bear (and sunglasses, and cowgirl outfit, and pillow and….) Nothing makes a mother feel worse!
Way to accessorize the bicyclist!
Oh, the teddy bears. Wait till third grade. Betsy lost the entire school spelling bee in third grade because she misspelled the word “coffee.” And do you know WHY? Because her mother has the audacity not to drink it. It wasn’t in the house, and if it HAD been, she would have known how to spell it because she would have SEEN it every day. And further, as a 20-year-old college junior, she came 3,000 miles to visit me this weekend, saw a packet of my husband’s coffee in the cabinet, turned and said, “So NOW you have coffee. Lot of good it does!”
You might as well embrace the mommy-guilt, Melanie. It will be with you for llife.
If she happens to fall and bend those training wheels, don’t fix them. She’ll compensate and ride like a champ. It’s one time that being lazy will be in your favor. Ask me how I know…
I’ll never forget this – I refused, with much wailing and gnashing of teeth, to let my dad remove my training wheels. He said “ok” and I forgot all about it. So much so, that one day, a few weeks later, I looked down and realized they were gone. He’d just removed them without telling me, and, as he suspected, I was just jumping on the bike and pedalling away. Wiseguy.
I can so totally relate. I keep my grandkids most weekdays & the 7 year old is all drama queen. She can turn the tears on in a nanosecond!!
Oh my word!! A nerve pill…I haven’t heard those words in years. My grandmother (mamaw to those of you in the south) was a self proclaimed doctor, but I think it was an aunt who took nerve pills. I’m still smiling.
Your Caroline makes me super nervous to raise a girl. My son is 4 and has been riding with no training wheels for a year – wipes out, gets up and does it again. The fact that my daughter is two and cries at the drop of a hat already, in addition to this tale of a dramatic 6-year-old and her bike is just giving me a headache already. At least you make it sound so very funny and entertaining!
What a precious sight! Grani- Suz is saving this picture. Wish I could have seen her and rooted her on her way.
Way to go Caroline!
Hey and I just had to add that Seattle has had a beautiful and exceptionally mild winter, it’s even been sunny for the last week! LOL;)
As a teacher, that annoys me that the teacher called you to tell you Caroline forgot her teddy bear. Is it really that necessary to call a parent and have him/her bring it up to the school? I guess I should also mention that I’m a high school teacher, so I would never call a parent to them that their child forgot something like that. How frustrating.
I have to give a little shout out from Seattle on this one!! We have had the mildest nicest winter this year, and Im eternally grateful for it. I feel your pain down there, yucky rainy days are only good once a month, so you can catch up on laundry, DVR and stay cozy. Hooray for keepin the little miss encouraged on that bike!!! She is such a little sweetie!
You are so hilarious, you make my day..I wanted to comment that you were exactly right about the little accessories you buy to make a girl feel better, that is what I try to tell my husband all the time abou me, I feel so much better after a shopping trip!!!!
First of all, every time I wear purple I can’t shake the feeling that I look like a Laker Girl Gone Bad. Second, our hood has lots of bike paths if Caroline wants to bring her bike when y’all come to town. Jackson just got one, too. Third, shouldn’t we be getting pedi’s and busting out the flip flops by now? For reals!
Oh Melanie! Thank you, thank you, thank you for lifting my spirits and making me laugh today. I really needed this dose of Big Mama on this dull rainy day.
As for the busy parenting thing. I know it sounds trite but please try to enjoy each and everything about it. She will be grown before you can even blink. I’m on the other end of the spectrum and sometimes I would give anything go go back and capture those crazy, busy days with my children. Thank goodness for grandchildren and a chance to enjoy the little ones all over again and then give them back to their parents when the drama starts. Caroline is a blast. Love her!
I haven’t thought of Grimace in YEARS!!! Hilarious post, as usual!
Our family philosophy with ANY sport was, you have to “look a good sport”. We shelled out many bucks so our daughter looked great. Fortunately, she was pretty talented in the athletic department, but she was outfitted for a few sports that she tried a few times and didn’t like. But she looked great!
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