Riding a Two Wheeler

Today was an amazing day! Doodle learned to ride a two wheeler! I wasn't sure how we were going to teach her to ride a bike without training wheels - perhaps she would be like Alice on the Brady Bunch, riding with training wheels well into adulthood. I was OK with that, but figured she wouldn't want that. I feared with all of her coordination and attention issues she wouldn't be able to ride, steer, balance, and peddle all at once.

Then, I found a website that gave me the confidence to try it this afternoon. Bicycle.net had a great article on how to take the fear out of teaching a child to ride a bike. He claimed to be able to do it in an hour - not days on end.  So, I had my husband take the training wheels off of Doodle's bike and she and I set off to try out the technique.

He was right! It took Doodle 1.5 hours to be riding around our pond on her own (and I got quite a workout running beside her.)

Getting started

Doodle's riding on her own!

Giving Mom a Run For Her Money

The website suggests four steps: 
1. Ride in a circle while you hold onto the seat and handle bars - going one direction and then the other. We did this for about 30 minutes (Bicycle.net suggests 10 minutes, but it took us longer to get the hang of it). 

2. Go to a park with a large grassy field

3. Hold onto to the seat and run along side your child - like traditional methods - while on the grassy field.

4. Let go. Let them ride until they are comfortable.

For us, we did step 1 and then worked on riding the straight-a ways on the road. We tried the grass in our large back yard, but Doodle couldn't get up enough speed to keep balanced, so we headed back out to the street. I ran beside her and eventually let go and she just kept peddling by herself. Sometimes she would get distracted or stop peddling and lose balance and I would be running beside her to help her get back on track. Eventually she figured how to run into the grass when she was going to fall.  


We did this all the way around our neighborhood pond - which is about a 1/2 mile! By the end, she was off and peddling by herself without my help. I'm so excited for her!

 

Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pancakes

So, I don't know about you, but I LOVE Pinterest. My love for Pinterest has quickly surpassed my love for Facebook. I love perusing through the creative pictures, recipes, arts and crafts out there on the web. What a great way to organize everything I love. 

I've been using this tool as a way to organize recipes for my family, myself (I'm a no carb/sugar person), and especially for Doodle. Well, the other day I found a fabulous pancake recipe for Doodle here. It looked delicious - and who wouldn't love the thought of cookie dough pancakes? Well, I didn't have cashews on hand, nor did I have amaranth flour, arrowroot, or brown rice flour on hand. (I live in the middle of nowhere, after all.) So, I adjusted the recipe to use the allergy friendly ingredients I did have on hand. Here goes:

1/4 Cup Sweet Rice Flour

1/4 Cup Pea Protein Powder

1/2 Cup Sorghum Flour
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Baking Soda
1/4 Cup AppleSauce
2 Tbsp Agave Nectar
1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil
Ghiradelli Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips

1. Preheat griddle and pre-season with oil. Mix together with a spatula the dry ingredients.
2. Add applesauce, agave nectar, and vegetable oil. 
3. Stir in chocolate chips. 
4. Place a small scoop of batter on griddle - the dough should be thicker than regular pancake batter. Flip when golden brown and repeat. 

I didn't make the marshmallow cream - these pancakes were sweet enough on their own. So, we added some pure maple syrup and Doodle enjoyed! I made the entire batch of pancakes and froze the leftovers for breakfast during the week. 

The End Is Near

It's hard to believe, but Doodle has less than 2 days left of first grade! Where did the year go? I can't complain - it's been a wonderful journey this year. I was nervous for Doodle, as I always am, starting first grade. How would she do in her first year without an Individual Education Plan (IEP)? Would she keep up with her peers? Would she understand math, reading, language arts?

I need to learn to have more faith in Doodle, but it's my job, as a mother, to worry about her. Or at least that's what I tell myself! I have to say, I'm so proud of the way she met every single challenge this year and worked through her struggles. Math was definitely a tough one. I feel like we finally turned a corner on that one - her end of the year test she got only 6 wrong out of 44 questions! She went from failing at the beginning of this last quarter to getting only 6 wrong! It definitely helped to turn math into a game with her. Playing hide and seek math was one of her favorite challenges.  Here's how it works:

1. Create multiple flash cards of math problems (start simple)
2. Hide them throughout your house (I kept it fairly localized)
3. Set a timer
4. When your child finds a flashcard, they run back, hand you the card, and tell you the answer
5. Give your child a reward for each correct answer (I used jelly beans or stickers)

This summer we will have to keep math fresh in her mind. I don't want her losing everything she learned over first grade during the summer. I'm sure if I create some kind of incentive for her, she'll dive right in and keep it up. She'll be ready for whatever comes in second grade!

Cheers to a great school year!

Gluten Free Vegan Banana Bread

Last week I discovered some completely over-ripe, rotten banana's that were left in my fruit bowl from Easter. Now, in my house, either banana's last one second after I buy them or they sit in the fruit bowl and rot for weeks. It's a mystery as to when my kids can't get enough of the fruit and when they will be completely bored with it and forget the banana's are there. Apparently, this time it was the latter scenario. So, what do you do with nasty banana's? Make banana bread, of course!

It's been awhile since I've made banana bread. The last time I did, Doodle was still eating eggs. You can find that recipe here. If you can't have eggs, like Doodle, here's the modified version - including a few additions. I added in Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips to this batch to make a delicious treat and protein powder to sneak some protein and offset the sugar. The bread turned out wonderful and Doodle enjoys it during her school snack.

Vegan Banana Bread

1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Agave Nectar
4 T Dairy Free Shortening
1 1/2 tsp Ener-g Egg Replacer
1 T warm water
3/4 Cup Almond Milk (or other milk substitute)
3  Cups GF Flour Blend
1/2 Cup Pea Protein Powder (substitute GF flour, if needed)
1 tsp Xanthan Gum
1 T & 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
3 over-ripe banana's - mashed
1/2 Cup Ghiradelli Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 1 bread loaf pan.
2. Mix sugar, agave nectar, shortening, with a mixer. Whisk together egg replacer and warm water. Add to sugar/shortening and mix.
3. Add in almond milk and banana's with mixer.
4. Stir in dry ingredients and chocolate chips until combined.
5. Split mixture between prepared loaf pans. Bake in oven for 50-60 minutes or until knife inserted in loaf comes out clean.