In his own time

Jacob does things when he is good and ready and not a moment before. He rode his new birthday bike a few times, but it was fairly tentative. He couldn't get the hang of pedaling, you know how you sort of tilt your foot to angle the pedal the right way so that you are putting downward and forward pressure on the pedal? Well, he couldn't get it, like he wanted to move his feet up and down instead of elliptically. So he would get on but go really slow, and you know how it is, the slower you go the less you can steer and the more you wobble. So he would wobble, and then he took a couple of spills and didn't want to try again for a few days. Today I just casually mentioned, "Hey want to ride your bike?" and he says "Yeah!" then walks over to it, gets on and just takes off and rides non stop at warp speed for the next half hour. It was so neat. There is nothing in the world as awesome as seeing the look of pure joy and freedom on your child's face when they take on something really new and master it. His wiggly tooth is still hanging in there, getting looser by the day. The new tooth is coming up behind it, so he looking like a shark right now with sort of a double row of teeth. I hurried to schedule new family portraits this weekend because I really wanted one more set of him with baby teeth still all in. Somehow it just seems like a big deal to me, like once they get snaggly toothed and then they get those big grownup teeth and they really aren't toddlers anymore. I'm always wistful about milestones, excited, but a little taken aback by how fast time goes by when you are raising little ones. The other night we were at the mall (getting shirts for our picture) and Jacob got tired and asked me to carry him. I did, for a bit, just because I still can, you know?