Pedal to the Metal

One of Piper’s PT goals is to learn to ride a tricycle.

The obvious issue here is, surprise surprise, her inability to touch the pedal of ANY tricycle that’s available (well, at least any that are less than a few hundred dollars…)

So, the goal has been put onto the back burner until someone grows some gosh darn legs.

That is until we found this little doozie at a garage sale a couple months ago. 

It’s perfect.

She can touch the pedals (mostly, anyway), it’s fun, and it was cheap. 

My number one thing I like about this is that she can actually, you know, do it. 

But the number two thing I like about it is that it allows for an adult to pedal for her without bending down, attempting to keep up on foot, and looking a little silly on the sidewalk in public (all things we would do, mind you, if it actually worked…)  Piper asks for help to get on (she’ll get her feet over and straddle it, but can’t get up on the seat because it is a little tall), and then we help her get started pedaling. 

She can do a few rotations by herself, but she doesn’t keep going very long.  The pedals are a little far of a reach for her, so I tried rubber banding a half of a magic eraser (don’t judge me…) onto each pedal; I’m not really sure how much good it did, though.  I’ve also tried attaching her feet to the pedals, but she seems more distracted by that than anything.  So we just keep doing it this way.

The bad thing about it?  Whenever the thing tells you to “catch the monkey”, Piper practices her “look ma, no hands” stance to sign monkey.

And also?  The music is enough to drive a person NUTS.  But Piper likes it.  Go figure… 

Thankfully, unlike my toddler, there is an off button.