I am so proud of Matthew. Last week, he decided, with a bit of bribing from me, that he would ride his bike. He is always on his scooter, trailing behind Lucas and any neighborhood kids when they are out playing. It breaks my heart to see him pumping his little leg to move the scooter to keep up with everyone else, but he wasn't seeing the need to ride his bike. So, I told him that he could have 15 marbles if he rode his bike, with Derrick running beside, to the end of the street three times. That was all it took! He got going on it, and pretty soon he was riding to their boundary, and he was waiting for one of us to come down and give him a push start back toward home. The next day, he worked and worked on getting started himself, and he has that figured out, too. There is a bike trail a few blocks from our house, and it has a very big hill that Lucas has been wanting to ride down. Derrick took them out individually for bike rides this week, and Lucas did the hill. When Matthew found out, he was a little bent out of shape. I told him he needed to be more confident on his bike, and Daddy would take him. The rest of the day Monday and part of Tuesday he rode and rode his bike to show he could keep it together on the hill. Derrick took them both last night on the hill. Not sure Derrick will do that again, but the boys thoroughly enjoyed it. I am so proud of him because he tends to think anything new will hurt him, and he isn't always the bravest little soul. He has such confidence now, and it's starting to show up in other things. Although, he does turn every light on between the living room and the bathroom when we send him to brush his teeth. Oh well. He also has two loose teeth on the bottom. Pulling them out could get interesting, so I haven't been messing with them too much.
We have also been working on the nursery. It is coming together nicely, and we think it's really cute. It's so much fun getting that kind of stuff ready.
Derrick has really been into grilling out this summer. We almost always use the grill from about April through October or so. Usually it's hamburgers, brats, steaks. This summer, we've grilled corn, shrimp, peaches, pineapples, etc. The goal is for Derrick, aka Bobby Flay, to try different things and see how they turn out. This weekend or next we're going to try pizza on the grill. After dinner, we've used the firepit a lot and had lots of s'mores!
