Thursday, March 19, 2009

Elvis Rides A Trike

It's been a very spring-ish week. The yard is still soggy and even snowy in places, so we haven't let Joy out to muck around by there yet. Fortunately, though, we have a nice deck that catches the afternoon sun. Joy was out on the deck with her barista this afternoon, while I was inside concocting a delicious vegetarian lasagne with rainbow chard, frozen from last year's garden.

Suddenly I heard squeals cries of delight coming from the barista on the deck. "She's pedaling! She's pedaling!" As I came to the door, the barista demanded, "Has she ever pedaled the trike before?"

Well, no, not really. We've tried for several years now. I've duck-walked backward in front of the trike, holding her feet onto the pedals, and she'd go around a few times that way. She'd sit on the trike and propel herself with feet on the ground. But no, she'd never pedaled before.

"Oh, then you have to see this. Look, she was getting her feet onto the pedals and would keep them on when I pushed her... here, Joy, feet on the pedals... and then when I let her go, she kept on going... wait, Joy, can you put your feet back on? Oh, no. Well, she was doing it a minute ago!"

Heh. Elvis rides again.

Kiddio by Kettler
By the way, this is an awesome little trike. It's a Kiddio by Kettler, cost us $40 new in 2005, not difficult to assemble, and still going strong.

13 comments:

Quirky Mom said...

Go Joy! Now keep that girl triking! Apple has the darnedest time with pedaling as well, but she manages little bits of it from time to time. Thing is, next time she gets on it is as if she never figured out how to pedal before. I think this summer our plan is to get her on it daily. If Hubby and I can handle the frustration.

mama edge said...

That bilateral coordination is a tough thing to manage. Wow!

Niksmom said...

Awesome development! We're stillworking on getting Nik to keep his feet on the pedals so I totally get how big a deal this is. Woo Hoo!

Anonymous said...

It IS a big deal - agreeing with all you four Moms.

Has no one ever offered any of you cuffs or strapping over the pedals? This is one of the easiest adaptations to a trike - saving big over buying an adapted trike.

With another relatively easy adaptation - a pole/handle added to the back for allowing an adult to push the trike - a child can experience pedaling within the energy range of the adult doing the work.

Sure the movement is passive at first, but with regular practice...hoping for Elvis to turn into Joy, Apple, Nik (don't know if Rocky and Taz are still working on this).
Barbara

Anonymous said...

I've been looking for a good trike for several years now. Not only for Joy but for another kiddo here at the daycare. Where did you pick this one up at? Or did you mail order it.
If I have one at daycare as well, maybe the peddling will become more of an Elvis sighting!

Anonymous said...

Uh, that would be - More THAN an Elvis sighting!

More coffee, more coffee...

Anonymous said...

That's awesome!

JoyDad said...

Lynda,

We bought it at Toys R Us, went with Rose to pick it up.

JoyMama said...

Lynda - I don't know if they make this particular model any more. But yeah, we just went to Toys R Us with Rose and had her try them out until she found one that worked well, in our price range. It was for her 3rd birthday.

Therextras - we did get to play with an adaptive trike in-clinic two summers ago. Unfortunately, the therapist who was trying to work with it was the ONE therapist who has ever been a complete crash-n-burn as far as Joy is concerned. Joy *would not* work for her -- it was the darndest thing.

Some sort of cuff/strap thing might be useful, assuming it's a setup she could get out of by herself. On the other hand, since she seems to be on the cusp of succeeding without them, maybe we won't even need them? :-)

Quirky Mom - we have the seeming-to-forget-she-ever-did-things here too. Sooo frustrating. It fits the big sound-board metaphor I've been using to describe Joy's development, with the faders and switches that slide and flip both up and down, on and off... Anyway, maybe this will be the summer that both Apple & Joy will ride! (And Nik?)

Thanks for all the cheers, everyone! Woo hoo!

pixiemama said...

Huzzah! HUGE ELVIS SIGHTING!

Anonymous said...

Hey, that's great. I hope the pedaling keeps up.

Just make sure that JoyDad stays off of the trike.

I was just telling Auntie Meerkat about the trauma that ensued when JoyDad broke my tricycle right in half because he was riding around in it. This left me with no other transportation than one of those caterpillars that you bounce on to make it go forward. This was rather humiliating, but I think I've recovered okay.

JoyDad said...

JoyDad, cold-hearted trike killer...

datri said...

Wow, that is HUGE! Kayla runs away screaming from a trike, LOL.