Last summer one of my twin sons learned to ride his bike without training wheels. It was a glorious day for him! Many accolades were given and he proudly joined the million other kids forming the ranks of two wheeled riders. His twin, however,did not. Though his one-minute older brother sped past without the clumsiness of four wheels, Caleb was perfectly content to take the slower road. The protection and safety of extra wheels firmly on the ground was worth the cost of speed.

However, one day this spring, one of Caleb’s treasured training wheels fell off. After a few attempts by me, his mechanically-challenged Mommy, to reinstall the wheel, it was still abdicating its helpfulness on a regular basis. Basically, he needed to learn to ride with the help of just one training wheel if he wanted to ride. The news was received with grumbling and a very sour face. But to motivate and encourage abandoning the training wheels altogether, I offered that when both of the twins knew how to ride without training wheels, we would go to the store and buy horns for their bikes. The grumbling was quickly drowned out by the other twin’s shouts of encouragement and jubilation at the thought of the shiny horn waiting with his name on it.