Has This Started Already??

I think it's been a known fact for a while now that Max is an adrenaline junkie. Since he was teeny tiny, he has loved to do things that I imagine would terrify most children his age, like being thrown around upside down and jumping off the diving board into the pool. But over the last week or so I have seen him really pushing his limits and it's given me a glimpse into the future that terrifies ME! (Um, hello, I never want you to get your driver's license!!)

One such example is this:

This is Max's balance bike. This thing is supposed to help a kid learn to balance on two wheels so that when they start to ride a real bike (ie, a bike with pedals), they are able to skip the riding-with-training-wheels phase. We'll see if that really happens, but for the time-being I can say that his balance and coordination on this thing have definitely improved by leaps and bounds since he started using it. He's been playing around with it for months now; in fact, when he started using it, he couldn't even touch the ground unless he was wearing his rain boots, which gave him some extra lift.

But for the past week or so, he has been ALL ABOUT this bike. We took it over to Mimi and PopPop's so that he could ride with Benny, who had his tricycle there, and just within the last few days Max's confidence on the bike has soared. In fact, on Thanksgiving, he was "stuntin" on the step in the sidewalk that leads up to the pool, and his rear tire blew. That didn't really stop him, as he proceeded to cruise around, even on the flat.

So after a quick trip to Walmart to replace the tire, he was good to go again with a real tire. He and Benny had a blast yesterday riding up and down the step again and AGAIN ad nuaseum. And today, Max was more than eager to take his bike out for a cruise around the neighborhood. (see happy picture above).

Well, leave it to Chris to decide that we should take Max for some off-road action. At the back of the neighborhood, where the land has been cleared for roads but no roads have been built yet, there is a nice area for breaking a leg having some fun. We didn't have to ask Max twice if he wanted to ride in the dirt. "More bumpy!" he said. And of course, there was no hesitation whatsoever to riding to the top of the hills and trying to give me a heart attack.

As if that wasn't enough, then this nonsense began:


And that was followed by Max's motto for the grabbing all the fun in life (see if you can catch it in this video):



 "Do It Again!" And so...he did. You're probably thinking that a crash is inevitable. You would be correct.



But our young daredevil was undaunted and I predict, unfortunately, many more harrowing moments in our future. (Heaven help me.)