Liam rides his bike without stabilisers!

It's a defining moment for any parent: the first time your child rides their bike without stabilisers. And, yesterday, April 19th 2009 at the age of 5 and three-quarters, Liam did it.

We had expected him to take to it, as he had been completely without fear on his tricycle aged 2 - see the report at the end here - but we were also fearful of him falling off the instant we let go the saddle, and being traumatised, primarily by a sense of failure (he can be quite hard on himself when things don't go according to plan).

We had a few practices in the back garden (2-3 minutes tops), then moved to the park on Park House Road for the showdown with destiny!

And, of course, Liam being Liam, as soon as we let go he was off! The first film below is, literally, only his 2nd ever try - a creditable effort, the unorthodox 'controlled stop' technique notwithstanding!

As you can see in the later film (below), he had become so blase about the whole thing he could admonish his own father for not keeping up!

Also, out of nowhere, spontaneously, and not - we hope - driven by our seething ambitions for the boy (which amount to him being happy whatever he wants to do), he said, "I want to make you proud!"

Which we both were, of course.