4th of July Freedom (My grandson and me)

Without going into to much detail... My grandson, his grandma, and me are avid gamers. Our grandson loves to come over for a spell and play games on the pc's. He loves playing Roblox, Warrock. He's not much for the MMORPG's tho.

 Weeks ago I decided I wanted to buy my grandson a bicycle, have him help me build it and teach him how to ride it.

And it happened, I'm proud of all of us. He helped me put the bike together, used the tools with his hands to tighten nuts, he put the front tire on, the handle bars on and the seat and helped me clean everything up. He did good.

Then I tweaked it a lil for him by adjusting to his size, and tightening everything up the proper torque and all that.

Then we took the bicycle outside to teach him how to ride...

 "Where's your shoes?" I asked...

 "I didn't bring'em". he said

 "Why not?" I asked in a confused manner... "You need your shoes to go everywhere... 'Cept to the beach, and then sometimes"

 "I knew I was gonna be riding a bike and I didn't want to, that's why I only brought flip flops" he replied.

 I asked him "Why don't you wanna learn how to ride a bike?"

 His reply was that he didn't want to fall or be embarrassed.

"Get your butt up, and let's go!" I told him.

 He got up and we went to riding the bike, he wobbled, and struggled and got mad. His grandma and me kept encouraging him.

The first day (yesterday) he was able to go about 10 ft before he lost balance.

I kept telling him. "If you feel like your going to fall off, all you have to do is put your feet down" And that right there was the beginning.

Today: He took what he learned yesterday, and wobbled and almost got it. I had him stand up and sit down on the bike while I held the seat so he could get a feel for what it was like.

I noticed that he would keep getting knocked off when he hit the grass around the side walk.

So I said "Come on, I know what you need, So I took him out to the parking lot.

He said "Oh great, no grass if I fall"

I said, "Just put your feet out if you feel like your gonna fall. It's really easy. A monkey can do it"

A couple of wobbles and feet straight out, and then the magic happened. He was ridin' and he was smilin' and he was riding his bicycle and he didn't fall.

I gave him 4 quarters and said now go do it again, his grandma and mom and little brother came out, and he was off to the races, he had done it. He was ridin' and he was liking the feeling.

He came up to me and said "That's all I needed was a little more space... Can I do it again when we come back from breakfast?"

"... Absolutely"

Happy 4th of July everyone.