the big day

Saturday was one of those milestone days, man. When you have a kid, or at least when I had mine, there were just certain days. First girlfriend introduction. First movie in a theatre. The day he leaves home. The day he beats me at chess. BIG days.

We had one, one of the biggest of them all, at least what passes in our modernity for a true rite of passage. We went out to a flat piece of ground, took the training wheels off and watched Max ride his bike with no help from either of us. After twenty minutes he didn't need us to steady him while he started, and he didn't fall once.

It is awesome to see him get that excited about his own accomplishments, too. Just ask him about it and his face beams as he says the words "two wheeler" and talks about casting off the training wheels.

There's a yiddish word that gets used, often as a punchline, but it seems apt. That word is "kvell" and it means to burst with pride, and that's pretty much what I did when I saw max stomp down on that pedal, almost overbalance and then pull that correcting move that's second nature to anyone who rides. The first time you see that, you kvell till it borders on mishegas.