Kaleo SLOW DOWN!!

Under normal circumstances, you would encourage your kids to run faster, jump higher, take some risks and push harder. In my son's case it's the exact opposite. It's hard to keep him down in low gear, from jumping off everything and to be still and enjoy the moment. Yes, I have an over-active four year old that is in to everything and he is extremely competitive.

It's been joked around in my office that they'd love to see my son put down a Red Bull and "see what happens". I'll tell you what would happen. If he were running, he would wear out the pavement. My guess is that he would make it from L.A. to San Fran in just over 7 hours. To further describe the super-human energy this kid has, last summer when he was three, we went to the San Diego Wild Animal park where it was about 100 degrees. He ran for 5 hours straight, exhibit to exhibit. All this while pushing his stroller because he refused to sit in it. Our annual passes to Disneyland gets used alot, in fact, Disneyland loses money on us. From the time we enter the parking lot, it's pretty much a six hour chase fest for my wife and I, so that he doesn't get lost. At least with my wife, we can tag team. "Hey hon, it's your turn to chase him".

Anyways back to slowing down... We did another pavement ride today where I cut him loose from the tow kit on my bike. He had a similar "crash into the river" incident only this time, it was crash into the *pavement*. Ai yai yai... For the first mile or so I had to constantly warn him to slow down "remember what happened the last time?", he listened to me for about 5 minutes, then he started booking it and took off. Somehow he managed to cross his handle bars and crashed pretty hard. Of course he got up crying, but what was weird was that he was less concerned about his injury and more worried that I would end the ride as punishment for crashing. Anyways, he got a bad knee scrape. He begged me to keep going so we continued and did the three park tour. (three playgrounds along a 10 mile bike path).

In retrospect, I think it's time for a new bike for him. I think a bigger bike wouldn't have such a sharp turning radius and would probably be a bit more stable. I think it's also time to yank off the training wheels. As far as telling him to slow down, I end up sounding like a broken record. Admittedly, I'm a protective parent when it comes to the risky outdoor things we do, but I really don't want to discourage his competitive enthusiasm.