I have never been able to ride a bike. My mum, God love her, tried her best to teach me, but it was on an adapted trike. That is something I would kill for now, but when I was seven, I didn’t want to be any more obviously different from the neighbourhood kids than I was already.

I was utterly determined that my girls would learn, without feeling that they were different or unable. But then, because I didn’t know how, I also knew it wouldn’t be me with the skills or knowledge to teach them. This was a job for Daddy.

We didn’t get Immy a bike until the Christmas she was 4. She spent Christmas Day afternoon taking her first few tenative pedals(?) around the park across the road from our house. Two years on, she is evermore confident, though in need of a new bike because she has grown so much.

Now, she is safe enough and confident enough that Kev reckons I will be able to take her out on her bike alone. For my part, I am nervous. Will I be able to hold up my end of the bargain as her mum and keep her safe?

For her part however, I am in awe. My brain, my body cannot compute the whole process of learning to ride a two-wheeled bike. I do not, I will never have the balance to even attempt it and yet, my clever girl, somehow, has just managed to get it. It is, to me, just incredible.

Knowing that we had left Squidge’s biking journey rather late (I suppose lockdown would have been a good time to try!) we bought Gabster a balance bike for her second birthday. Her third birthday is almost here but suddenly, gee’ed on by seeing her big sister on wheels, she is in love with it.

I have always been aware of balance bikes, but not having great balance myself, I didn’t quite get them. Having seen Gabster on hers however, how quickly she has taken to it, zooming around, I am suddenly aware that this is exactly what I could have done with! The chance to work over and over again on my balance, to see my feet gliding across the pavement as I sped up, not having to trust the wheels so completely straight away. Oh where were balance bikes in the mid 90s?

I am beginning a routine of taking Gabster her balance bike to ride home from nursery (which is about a third of a mile away but still manages to tire her out) which she adores. She is getting more and more confident, just like her big sister, looking just like her in the hand-me-down Peppa Pig cycle helmet. She shrieks “I’m going faster!” or “I’m doing so well riding my bike on my own!”

Yes you are, my clever girl. You will soon be ready for a big girl bike, just like your big sister.

Oh, how you both amaze me so. So brave. So clever.