Birthday Week :: the bike

Ever since before there was a Jilly Bryan has been looking forward to her first bike.  He really wanted to get her a balance bike (one with no pedals.)  The idea is that kids get used to balancing on a bike from a young age and then never have to use training wheels.  The only problem was that every time we went to try out bikes Jilly went straight for a bike that A. was pink or B. had streamers on the handlebars or C. all of the above.  She refused to go near any other bike.  

At this point we didn't give up but decided that this was definitely going to be something she'd have to grow to love.  So instead of paying full price we started looking on Craigslist.  Finally, the week before her birthday we found one and drove out to look at it.  It was lime green, but it had a bell on it that she loved so we bought it.  

A few days later Bryan was talking to one of his friends about the bike.  His friend, Jeff, said that he could powder coat the bike and even already had some pink paint.  So Bryan took the bike apart, stripped off the green paint, and took the bike to Jeff to work his magic.  On her birthday morning we gave Jilly a shiny pink balance bike.

She still is very hesitant to ride it, but she loves to ring the bell and she loves to show people her new bike.  I'm sure one day soon she'll be going off jumps with Bryan.