3 a.m. and a bike without training wheels.

It is 3 a.m. and I cannot sleep. I am still running on adrenaline from the most recent bout with croup. Don't worry, I think we won. I was sleeping soundly, well, as soundly as one can sleep when you know at any moment a small child will either be rolling over and squeezing your neck or tapping you on the arm or needing to pee or needing a drink or a heating pad or some oils or or or. So I was asleep and Evan came barging in, gasping for air. Wesley has been pretty sick for the last couple of days and his cold started with a really tight, croup-esque type of cough. I thought Evan had escaped it, but add sharing drinks, wrestling, hugging and then spending time with not one, but two sick cousins and he was doomed. As I heard Evan's sad little cry I went into auto pilot. Whisking him outside into the cold, applying oils, taking him down to the downstairs bathroom and marveling in the amazingness of the new shower as the tiny room filled with steam. Then, repeat. After about 45 min of this his little breathing was still strained, but he sadly whispered, "mom, can we go to bed?" Reluctantly, I agreed. (I would have rather slept in the bathroom where I knew he could breathe). We came upstairs and then the poor guy told me his tummy hurt. Enter round two of nighttime wars as he threw up all over the bathroom sink. :(.  I gathered him up, allowed a small sip of water, got him an emergency throw up bowl, reapplied oils and to my amazement he fell right to sleep. He is sleeping next to me with a little struggle to his breathing, but he is asleep nonetheless. I debated going back to my own bed, but I figured I couldn't sleep anyway and being a whole room away would not make it any easier. Poor little Evan.

Now that you know why I am up at this late hour, I will continue on with my update. Jen posted about Ivy riding her bike without training wheels and I felt guilt! Evan had accomplished the same amazing feat, yet my blog contained no such update! He had been begging us for weeks to take the training wheels off and I just kept blowing him off. Yeah right! No training wheels at this age?! Sounds like a recipe for disaster. A non-stop whine fest asking for help balancing the bike or help riding down at the community basketball court. It was much easier to let the training wheels do the work and I was not giving in! That is not until after we went to Jen's and I saw him hop on Ivy's little training wheel free bike and he could actually somewhat do it.  I decided it was time. I took off the training wheels, balanced him one time, and then without looking back, he was off!!!  He has been practicing and practicing and calls himself the red race car (his bike is red). He told my friend, Sarah, that the more he pedals, the gooder he gets! Totally amazing!

(*update... 4:02 a.m. Round 3 came at me with vengeance like it had something to prove. Cough, gasp, bark, throw up all at the same time. My heart! My poor child!)

(**update... 5:59 a.m. Rounds 4-50. Croup won.)