sixty in January?

We are having some bizzaro weather in Indiana which means that it was in the sixties at the beginning of the week and in the forties and rainy at the end of the week. The warm weather got me excited to do some bike riding while we had the chance and I was not disappointed. Elias joined me for a bike ride this last Monday and I was amazed by his progress. I don't know if time away gave his body a chance to figure out how to balance and everything but he is amazing. The only thing that Elias still has trouble with is starting up. The bike that he rides is Tristan's old bike from when he was a kid and although it has been adjusted down to its lowest seat level, it is still too big for Elias. The bike that I bought for him is the perfect size but he will not ride it. So riding a bigger bike means that the initial couple seconds when you take your feet off the ground and balance without moving forward are a little longer for Elias cause he cannot sit on the seat with both feet on the ground. He can balance one foot on the ground and lean slightly to the side but that means that he needs to over-correct his balance and start moving at the same time. This he hasn't quite figured out. Instead what we do is line up our bikes parallel to each other and I help him start. Then I catch up with him and we ride together until a stop sign. He does fine stopping (except for a couple hilarious crashes into the garage) and then I just get him going again. He has also improved his ability to stay in a relatively straight line. I used to find riding next to Elias a little bit terrifying (and you may remember running next to Elias earlier on in the learning process) because he did a lot of weaving from one side of the road to the other. But lucky for me, he doesn't weave around the block, except on purpose and he can even pass cars safely. But the nicest part of my bike ride Monday was the end. After crashing into the garage (I swear he does it on purpose), high-fiving each other and a big big hug, Elias told me that it was the funnest bike ride he had ever had.