Trying New Things

Yesterday was a wonderful Sunday. Earlier in the week X-man had said he wanted to try to climb the wall at the Y. He went with us to the climbing place in Bloomington over a year ago and was totally against the idea of getting into the belt and hooked up to a rope. MacTroll and I decided not to take it personally that he didn't trust us to catch him if he fell. He did really like traversing on the wall. He'd get up to five feet off the ground and then climb near a padded mat and jump off and climb again. It worked out fine. When we joined the Y he stared at the wall and declared that it was for big kids. Except that every time we've gone he's seen five year olds up there and wondered -- could I do that?

His anxiety would get the best of him and he'd just walk away. So when he asked to give it a try.

So, when he asked to go and give it a try, I said, "Yes." I booked the time. Paid the extra money for MacTroll to come with us. And off we went. X-man climbed four times. Each time he'd get about 10 feet up in the air and get scared and ask to come down. The employee, Kate, was really very wonderful encouraging him and reassuring him.

I made it about 2/3 up the wall, but both times, I'd start to feel a little -- scared. And I'm not sure why. I did it in Maine just fine. Kate said that for some reason when people get about even with the second floor ledge is about when they seem to freak out a little. She was encouraging and I think I'll go back and try it again with MacTroll.

Then later in the afternoon, MacTroll got X-man on his bike -- and the kid (on only his third attempt at riding) mastered riding on two wheels. He needs a little help getting started, and we think because he was following directions so well regarding looking forward, that he didn't even realize that MacTroll wasn't holding on.

We ran next to him for a while, but then when he got to our end of the block, he used his brakes to slow down, gently stepped off and said, "Did I do that?"

"Yes, X-man. Yes. YOU did."

Here's a photo of him the first time he tried learning at the Rec Center bike riding clinic the first weekend in May. (Dad's not home a lot and X-man wanted Dad to teach him, hence him only getting on the bike 3 times in a month.) But now I have a hard job of -- teaching the tying of the shoes.