After the party yesterday, Dwayne put Norah's bike together. My parents gave it to her for her birthday and had it sent to her in the mail.

She's finally big enough and it's finally chilly enough to wear the dark pink sweatshirt Uncle Donnie bought Norah last Christmas. She loves it.

She rode up our street. And, then got off and walked the bike to the park with my help, since the traffic goes so fast on East Mountain. Then, she rode around our park's bike trail once. She only fell once.

She took it slow, stopping often to test her breaks, to fix her hair, to pick her nose and to use her hands to chat. Don't you know? The hardest part about learning to ride a bike is training yourself not to talk with your hands and to learn to carry on a conversation and pay attention to where you are going at the same time...

Needless to day, she ran off the path a lot. And, as she sped up going down hill off the slopes on the sides of the path, she would talk faster so she could hurry up and finish her sentence before concentrating on stopping the bike.

The view from the path out over our reservoir as the sun goes down.

Dwayne stayed home with the baby so I could take her. He'll be the one running next to her when she tries to ride without the training wheels next year, but I can handle it for now.

Thanks, Grandma, Grandpa and Loretta, for coordinating the whole mess. You guys really came through and in perfect time. She'll remember this birthday forever!