Cycling Is Fun!

Last summer we started talking about getting a bike for Eden. I did a little research and asked around a bit, but somehow the summer got away from us and we never got that far. Eden's home PT mentioned that there was a little girl in our town who had a bike that she thought might work for Eden, so last fall I contacted her mom and asked if we could borrow it to try it out. These adapted trikes are so pricey that I really wanted to try one and see if it would work before I invested a ton of time and money into getting one. So, we borrowed it, and it worked. I figured that I had the winter to really figure out how we would go about getting one for Eden. She was excited about the prospect, and let us know that she wanted a pink Littlest Pet Shop bike. Of course.

Before I got too far along in the process, the mom who had loaned us the bike called me and told me that her daughter was outgrowing it and probably would not be able to use it come spring. She asked if we wanted it, and I said, "absolutely."

Fast forward to about a couple months ago. I went and picked it up, and Eden became the proud new owner of a blue and green Freedom Concepts Discovery bike. Well...at least she was the owner and she would ride it...I don't know about proud. It wasn't exactly what she had envisioned (it wasn't pink), but she WAS a good sport about it.

In the meantime I hatched a clever plan, and called up a couple of my super industrious, creative-type friends. I asked if they thought they could turn this into a pink bike for Eden and they told me to bring it over! So, I dropped it off and a week later it was pretty and pink. Ron spray painted the bike light pink and dark pink, and Amy even made pink glittery beads for the spokes. They also cleaned it up and tightened up all the parts so it was a much smoother ride.

I took Eden with me so they could see her reaction, and it was everything she had hoped it would be. We put her on it and she literally TOOK OFF! She was flying on that thing, around and around their little cul de sac. We joked with her that the color pink must give her super powers. She told us that that the bike was just a lot faster without the "string" (the rope pulley that was holding the pedals up).

So, it IS faster without the pulley, but without it her toes were pointing and the pedals were scraping the ground. After getting it home, we decided to try it while wearing her taller orthotics. This worked like a charm. Now she is able to fly around on her new pink bike...which I also decked out with some Littlest Pet Shop removable stickers, a pink flower horn, AND a bell.

Instead of spending the summer learning to pedal a trike...we're gonna spend the summer really RIDING. We took it to the park a couple of weeks ago and she rode about a mile easily. She was riding circles around Holland:-) It honestly makes my heart sing to see her riding that bike. Eden has the PINK Littlest Pet Shop bike that she had dreamed of!

Special thanks to Amy and Ron, and everyone who helped make her dream come true:-)