The Surprise

The plan for the afternoon involved Nick and Tessie having a father-daughter day.  Nick hadn’t decided on any concrete plans by lunch, when he was suddenly struck with inspiration.  He whispered the idea to me, and I agreed it was a winner.  We asked Tessie if she wanted to go to town for a surprise, she and Christian both gave us an enthusiastic yes, and so we all piled in the car.  We wouldn’t tell Tessie what the surprise was, and she spent the whole car ride guessing.  “Are we going to the library?”  No.  “Are we going to the aquarium?”  No.  “Are we going to look at dinosaur skeletons?”  No, not even close.

As we pulled into the parking lot of our Big-Box store, yes I feel guilty, Tessie asked us why we were there.  “This is where the surprise is.” I said smiling.  She giggled a little and smiled back.  The four of us walked into the store and headed for the toy and sports department.  As we approached the bikes Tes said “Wow, look at all those cool bikes!”  Nick and I smiled at each other conspiratorially.  Nick knelt down in front of Tessie and asked if she would like to learn to ride a bike.

As understanding and realization settled in, a giant grin spread across her face.  After that we could hardly keep her focused as she ran from the bikes to the helmets, and back.  She pointed out all the bikes she thought were pretty, and we finally settled on a pretty pink and purple, heart covered Huffy.  A salesman got it down for us and Tes hopped on immediately.  After great deliberation over which helmet was best, we headed home with the new big-girl bike.

Nick dropped Christian and I off at home and took Tessie up the road to a forrest service trail with a big paved parking lot.  He later described the couple hours they spent there.  At first Tessie was having a hard time, she couldn’t turn the pedals all the way, and she was getting very discouraged.  They were about to head home, but Nick convinced her that new things can be hard to do, but she should try again.  Well she did, and she got it.  He said that once she started really riding around the parking lot she turned to him and said “I knew I could do it Daddy!” 

After they got home, and had a short rest, I asked Tes if she would show me how she could ride her bike.  I put on her helmet and she, very proudly, showed me her bike.  After the gravel turned out to be a bust, and the dirt hardly better, I suggested she ride the bike on our brick walkway around the house.  Tessie took off.  She needed a little nudge to get going, but then, man did she go. 

Tessie has been very cautious when it comes to physical activity.  Until recently, her feet barely left the ground when she jumped.  To see her zooming around corners on a bike is amazing.  And the pride she felt in this new accomplishment was radiating from her.  I finally convinced her we had to go back inside so I could start dinner.  She left her helmet on all through dinner, and only took it off so she could “look at it for a while.”  As I was getting the kids some ice cream she asked me how I was feeling.  I smiled and said I was happy, and very proud of her.  When I asked how she was feeling she said “I’m very proud of myself too.”  Beautiful.