Tuesday Nights

A lot of the folks that know me, know that I spend every Tuesday night with my daughter. No matter what is going on in life, I stop down and hang out with a five year old and we have a great time. Yeah, it means I eat too much chick-fil-a and what not, but I don't mind. We have had a pretty standard routine for the last couple of years where we would go have dinner and then window shop the stores in Burleson. I occassionaly would let her buy something or we would go to Borders and just read. That all changed tonight.

About a month ago, Jacqueline finally started expressing interest in learning to ride the bike that Santa brought her a couple of years ago for Christmas. She had well outgrown the bike, but was puttering around on it. She was having all kinds of fits because of the size. I told her that if she really wanted to ride, we would go to Mad Duck and she could pick out which bike she wanted and get it. Clarence doesn't stock many bikes of that size, so we pulled up the stools to the catalogs and websites. She found the pink one she wanted and placed the order. I picked up this on Saturday.


So I took it with me to Burleson this time around. She was giddy with excitement. We went to chick-fil-a and got loaded up on nuggets and ice-cream and headed for the park. She donned her helmet and put her leg over the bar and looked up at me nervously. I gave her a little nudge and she was off! She had a bike that fit and couldn't be stopped. I walked/jogged along beside her and behind her while she peddled the paved path that circled the permiter of the park. We stopped at the duck pond to look at the ducks getting a drink. We stopped and threw rocks in the creek on the back side. We meandered and made our way back to my jeep. As she took a long sip of her rootbeer, she looks up at me with a big grin and says "Come on. Lets go do another lap!" Off we went.

We finally made our way back to the car after the second lap. The lap where she figured out it was fun to go fast. I jogged most of it. Upon arrival, she is making sure the bike is clean as we put it back in the jeep. As we get into the jeep to head back to her mom's house, she smiles at me and ask if I can bring the bike again next week. I think we have a new Tuesday night schedule to attend to. And it involves two wheels. Reminds me why I do this thing called bike. Oh, to be five again and learning to ride.