Within seconds of Charlie’s birth, the doctor, and I was shocked to see his dark brown eyes searching the room, his surroundings and finally fixating on me. That moment seared into my memory, heart, and soul for the rest of my life.
He was a healthy baby with strong lungs only crying when hungry or needing a diaper change. He was four, and a half -months when Charlie surprised us both when he began crawling continuously, like a motor never stopping unless he was sleeping, eating or needing a diaper changed.
A month later he was walking, blindly showing no fear, navigating our three level home crawling up the stairs then walking to his destination.
On his first venture into our backyard, he was tenaciously running through the grass, falling only once and crying for just a moment. Uniquely, as I look back on that day, it was the last time he cried, as he just stood up, brushed his knees and began running again.
Several months later, with some trepidation, I bought him a blue tricycle with white stripes and chrome wheels. When I place it before him he mounted the trike seat and smiled. I watched him peddled furiously along the backyard sidewalks and into the grass, where he peddled so ferociously the front wheel would slip in the lawn, yet he kept peddling, gaining momentum to move forward.
Charlie would stay in the backyard for hours riding, eating his breakfast, and lunch from the seat of his tricycle. He never played on the elaborate swing set I built for him or any of his toys, he just rode his trike.
When I took Charlie and his tricycle to the local park, he peddled until he passed out from exhaustion. I watched him learn and discover his limitations speeding into corners tumbling from the trike only 4 four times. Although during his 4th tumble, he put his foot out to prevent from falling over completely. He starred at every two wheel bicycle he saw and I could see his desire and the wonderment in his eyes, and I understood what he really wanted.
I waited until he was two and a half to buy his first bicycle and on his first attempt to ride he stood up on the pedals and tried peddling as fast as he could. He had ridden about twenty-five feet away when he turned around peddling back to me and asked to have the training wheels removed.
With some reluctance, I took them off and watched as he rode away again as fast as he could and we look at one another knowing there was no denying Charlie was a daredevil for speed, and our future would never be the same.
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