“The true secret of happiness lies in the taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.”

Day 80:

I have absolutely loved cruising around Telford with Opeie on the Raleigh choppers over the last few days. It''s not only been us with the smiles on our faces either. We've had people honking at us, giving us thumbs up and a few people stopping for a (distanced) chat about how they owned one when they were younger. It turns out that these little beauties are happiness on wheels. 

"It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project."

Day 78:

Today we all went out on our new rides and it was lush. I was so gutted selling my chopper years ago when I knew that Opeie was on his way and after picking one up last weekend, me and that retro loving boy of mine couldn't stop thinking about riding it around the park. So I sold my mountain bike and went hunting online for choppers for ourselves. We managed to find a couple pretty easy and picked them up on the same day. Since then we've been tinkering, adding parts and cleaning them up. It's like I always say, it's good to have a project or two on the go, and now we can head out on some seriously stylish adventures.

"Learning how to learn is life's most important skill."

While I sat writing about Opeie losing his first tooth, I was thinking about how amazing it is becoming a parent and being there to experience all of their awesome milestones. Opeie's first words, steps, the first time I heard "I love you daddy", are all so special to me. I realised though, that although I've written about many of these over the years, I did miss a recent one out.

Opeie had never been interested in learning to ride his bike, Micro Scooters had pretty much dominated wheeled transportation for him and although there had been a BMX sitting in the shed, it was just there collecting dust. Two weeks before his 6th birthday though, he told me that he wanted to learn to ride his bike and he wanted to do it as a 5-year-old. It kind of came out of nowhere and the way he worded it really made me chuckle, but I loved the way he had set himself a challenge and was determined to learn this new skill. The bike came straight out and while all the kids were at school and our street was quiet we got on with it (I love the freedom of homeschooling). 

Seth had learned to ride his bike late on after a huge confidence knock when he ended up with a fractured arm but when he was 8 he decided to have a go and with a little patience, we got him riding within 2 hours which was a huge confidence boost for him. Knowing that this was how Seth did it was all the motivation that Opeie needed to get this new skill under his belt.

Day one was 1hr of trying to balance while I held him up, with tears from pure frustration but he was adamant that he could do it. Day two was a more confident half an hour of me holding him while he pedaled around and day three's hour and a half session completely took me by surprise when he held himself upright withing the first 5 minutes and I just let him go. Kids are AMAZING! I wish I could pick things up as quick as they do.

So our happy little 5-year-old had reached his goal in a few hours which was amazing. What I love most about all these new skills is the confidence that comes with it. To some people, these things may seem insignificant but I see the value in every little thing the boys pick up as they are developing. The more of these skills they acquire the more they realise, that anything is possible if they put their mind to it.

“Riding bicycles will not only benefit the individual doing it, but the world at large.”

I am loving this bike building with Seth at the moment, the pedals we ordered arrived yesterday and the look on his face when he opened the package was priceless. Seeing the boys get excited about things they are creating is really moreish. His new bike (for when he's that little bit taller) is really starting to come together now and it's making me want to build one for myself.

Since starting the build Seth mentioned that he would love his own tools for tinkering with his bike so he was really chuffed when we received a package from Rex London after being included in their 12 dynamite daddy blogs. that included a bike multi-tool and a puncture repair kit. It is always lovely to hear what people have to say about the blog and I'm touched to come in their top 12. Thanks to the great package all Seth needs now is his own mini tool box.

Again Seth did a great job of attaching the pedals himself and they look great. We've also now ordered brake pads and some skyway handlebar grip's to go with his swanky wheels. All that's left on Seth's BMX list is brake levers, calipers and a saddle and then we can concentrate on designing decals, which I think he is excited about the most.

We had talked about replacing the brake cables with something a little more colourful, but then Seth came up with the idea of making use of the remaining patterned duck tape from our Pedalflow. While he played with his friends outside a few days ago I sat in the garden and wrapped his cables, it was a really nice touch and a great idea by Seth.

This bike is all Seth and I'm really proud of how interested he has been during this build so far. It's important to have hobbies and as I've said many times before it's great to have a couple of projects on the go with your kids. These are experiences that they will remember forever.

"If you worried about falling off the bike, you'd never get on."

There are so many great milestones growing up as a child and as a parent, being able to experience each one is priceless. your child's first steps, words, tooth are moments that you will never forget and being able to watch them develop, while maturing as an adult yourself is (for me) beautiful. These amazing moments don't seem to end and if you are an active parent who gives your child the love and attention they deserve you can be right there with them as they make discoveries of the things they are capable of. 

as these amazing children get older and start to realise more just how awesome they are and whats going on, when there make these findings the pride that they feel themselves is really infectious and if you've been there to help them get to that point the excitement and pride in yourself as a parent can be euphoric.

I was lucky enough last week to experience this from both of the boys and it left me feeling like a pretty awesome dad (but then having two amazing children makes me feel like that most days). Opeie had completely thrown me earlier in the week when he tackled a rock climbing wall, despite me thinking there was no chance he would even give it a chance (i feel pretty guilty for that now). 

Later in the week though it was Seth's turn and again i didn't expect the ask to work out so easily. He came home from school the week before excited about a cycling class at school that was coming up and how he had signed himself up. He told us all about it and said it sounds like lots of fun, the only issue was that he hadn't asked to go on his bike for quite sometime due to finding it difficult to ride with stabilisers on. Seth had made it clear the last time he had his bike out that he was frustrated that he was struggling and because of his muscle condition we didn't want to push him.

So we aggree'd that last Sunday was going to be our 'Teach Seth to learn to ride his bike afternoon', We got his bike out of the shed and i took the stabilisers off straight away, there was no point beating around the bush, he wanted to ride his bike properly and his determination was enough to know not to pussy foot about, he meant business. I think Seth had got it in to his head that the whole learning to ride a bike thing was going to take weeks but as i walked along the road with him holding his coat to steady him i could feel that he was shifting his weight to balance himself and i just let go. We'd been out roughly 3 minutes and he was peddling a bike without stabilisers.

 (I used to stick my tongue out when i was concentrating too, clearly it was helping him balance)

So cycling in a straight line was a doddle! the turn at the end of the road however was not and he quickly lost his footing and fell. Luckily i had been jogging along behind him and caught him before hitting the floor. There's no time for thinking about what went wrong, best to just get back on and try again. That turn caused problems for at least 8 or 9 attempts but eventually Seth nailed it. A quick pat on the back and hair ruffle and i send him on his way to turn in the opposite direction (he would never get anywhere if he could only turn right).

Seth clearly couldn't believe what was happening, his happy little face had a smile from ear to ear (even if his tongue was hanging out concentrating).Watching him ride about knowing it was me that got him there as well as his determination was a great feeling but the hug i got afterwards and the 'thank you so much for teaching me how to ride my bike and helping me, i love you' just makes all this parenting worth while. When your children really look up to you there is no better feeling.

I'm looking forward to the boys next big venture whatever it may be.