It's Like Riding a Bike

Since we're currently agonizing over how much of our stuff we can ship to Atlanta, now is definitely not the time to buy a bike for Daisy. Luckily for us, our friend Trixi wanted to lend us little Konstantin's bike for a short while, since he's graduated to something with pedals.

Daisy loves joining the rest of the 3-year-olds on the continent and riding her Laufrad (training bike). It's not a piece of equipment that I was aware of back in the US, but it's brilliant, right? The kids learn how to balance and to steer this way, and can learn how to pedal separately on a tricycle. Maybe the reason that Europeans are so confident on bicycles is the early maneuvering education!

The pink flowering trees (what are they called?) provided a great backdrop for our morning bike ride yesterday.

When the wind blows, the confetti-like petals make me feel like it's my wedding...

...or that I'm a queen, walking on plush carpet.

More fun with weeds flowers:

Anyway, back to the bike:

It's amazing to watch Daisy learn how to ride this thing. For a few days, all she did was a slow waddle-walk, not even letting herself rest on the seat. But then, it started to click, and each day she gains confidence and experiments with longer stretches of rolling.

She could do this forever - yesterday morning, she "biked" a mile and a half before I reeled her in for lunch. Near our apartment, there's this fun kids' course where Daisy likes to "choose a street."

Well, all these pictures are good, but a video would be better, right? Here's some footage from yesterday with a special bonus song. (The other day, I had her sing some songs for the camera and flipped the viewing screen over so that she could watch herself - that's what she wanted this time, too.) The text of the song, a classic for kids here, is translated something like, "All my duckies swim on their lake, swim on their lake - little heads in the water, little tails in the air." Enjoy!

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