
There will only ever be one of these days!
We’d been asking him for almost a year to take his training-wheels off, he hasn’t needed them for quite some time but he was never ready.
His bestest buddies had been riding sans training wheels for almost two years but not my boy and he wasn’t the least bit bothered by it either.
My goal this summer was to make sure he rode enough to gain confidence in his abilities and hopefully take them off; however, my accident on vacation slowed those plans down. Sometimes, there’s a perfect day and September 9, 2014 was evidently the day.
Home from school, on a day daddy had off – father announced to son, “Let’s take the training wheels off today!” and son agreed. Hand in little hand they
walked out the front door with a red tool box, wheeled the bike up the front
sidewalk and my son, my son... took his own training wheels off. Discarded reminders of the small, wobbly boy he used to be.
The moments we captured are priceless… heartwarming and devastating (for this mommy) all at once. These are life moments… another reminder they will never be as little as they once were, need you as much as they once did… and how quickly we're racing to the next moment.

A smile so wide the setting sun's shadow cannot cast it out.
Looking at this picture I feel nothing but beaming love and pride for my boy... a big boy decision to grow up a little today. Just ready for the unknown... scratches, bruises and bumps that are surely in the future. I hope he watches for cars and stays out of the street... while he's racing with his friends... getting a head of myself! He cannot go outside with out us now.

We all turned outside for this moment. Sister is cheering him on... Daddy not quite letting him go, still holding on.
Still holding on... isn't that a sentence - how we hold on to these moments, just a bit afraid to let go... and my son in quiet determination to peddle and stay up.
A sunny September day... a photo of a moment captured in time where our boy grew up a bit...
The push off and looking ahead. He's not teetering anymore, he's straight and firmly on the path. He's going to do it...

I see the boy who wrapped his fingers in my hair and said I love you momma... the boy who learned how to crawl, then make his way to standing by lifting his little body to the couch... I see two toddlers in high chairs giggling and shaking their heads from left to right, a sort of game that made us laugh!
I see all seven years of his little life... I am so proud and sad... these years, they just go too fast... he's racing towards his future and I can't keep up... I will be cheering him on every step of the way... and when the bruises and bumps happen - I will be there to pick him up and help him get sturdy again as he gets back on the bike.
Then Esau looked up and saw the women and children. "Who are these with you?" he asked. Jacob answered, "They are the children God has graciously given your servant."