Today we took the training wheel's off S--'s bike. His training wheels were seriously crooked and broken, probably because he would mount his bike by standing on the training wheels. But because of that crooked brokenness, it was easy to see that he wasn't riding on them very often. So we pulled them off. He took off right away, but wobbled a little and, after collapsing on the grass in absolute despair, he demanded that we put the training wheels back on. When we said, "No" (after all, he rode halfway across the lawn before he wobbled), he wept and cried out, "I hate my bike."\
My patient husband talked him through it--"but you rode." We filled up his tires, which were a little low, and got him to agree to try again. He rode all the way across the lawn. And then needed to show his best friend what he could do.
It was at this point that my husband heard him whisper, "I love my bike."
