We knew that this day was coming, the day when Woo would start going off on his own. I thought at first that he would go for little distances, but I knew that they would grow and get longer with each little taste. It started with a trip to the park. Willy and Goose had gone off on their own, I was cooking dinner and Woo really wanted to go to the park. I said “Sure, you can go to the park.” I held my breath and waited. He went up the streat, around the corner and out of sight. I knew he needed to walk through the clubhouse and past the pool, and he did, going straight into the park and starting to play. He bumped into Daddy and Goose, and when the three of them arrived home together 20 minutes later, I started breathing again. He did it though, he did what I asked, and went where he said he would.
The next big step was when we removed his training wheels from his bicycle. All of a sudden he didn’t want to just ride on our little six street house anymore. He wanted to go around the corner and down the long stretch of the main road to the speedbump. It would more than quadruple the distance that he was able to ride, and would mean that he was out of our sight for a much longer period of time. We said yes. The first time he went I held my breath until he came back to circle in front of our house and go off again. He repeated this over and over. Eventually I stopped holding my breath. He loves to ride and he loves this little taste of freedom that we have given him. He has respected it so far.
This weekend our community had family fun days. We were in the park for long stretches of time, and the lils were left to run and play with new friends. We were watching them, but they were having fun playing with all the other children and were stayign close by. On Saturday afternoon Willy had a volleyball game, so he and Woo went to the park while I waited for Goose to wake from nap. We knew Woo didn’t want to watch, he mostly wanted to run and ride and play.
He quickly found the two little girls that live next door to us and the three of them raced around the park on their bicycles. Willy played his game, catching glimpses of the little boy as he raced by, happily and freely. As I left the house to join them, I noticed that Woo’s bike parked in front of our neighbors house. I guess he and the girls got tired of riding and headed there. When I got to the park Willy let me know that he had not asked to leave, but hadn’t been gone for long. We knew it was partially the excitement of play, and partially testing his boundaries, so we asked him more strongly to let us know when he wanted to leave the park. He agreed.
We met many new neighbours on Sunday, but one in particular stood out. As I introduced him to Woo, he said, “Oh, I know Woo. He and (the neighours) were in my house yesterday. I live over there.” He pointed to the far side of the community, a good distance from our house!! I think it is time to set a few more limits on that freedom, and maybe supervise a little closer!!