Summer milestones

Lukas lost his first tooth.  A friend of mine told me that you lose the teeth in the order in which they came in.  If that is the case then I remember when he got that tooth.  Jen spotted it at Stone Soup.  Lukas lay on the table between us only 4 months old!  That seems like a lifetime ago.  Truly.
Now, my almost 6 year old blonde boy with the wide blue eyes stands before me in the bathroom with a gaping hole in the front of his teeth and wild excited eyes.  His nose is dotted with freckles as he explains the tooth fairy to me. 
This summer he learned how to ride a bike and how to swim.  The bike ride was in Montreal.  It was a total surprise.  The house where we were staying had a kids bike his size and he wanted to scoot to the park with it but the peddles were in the way so he decided to try riding with me holding on.  It felt like letting a bird go when he first rode away from me.  It reminded me of how I felt when he first learned to walk.  There was the odd sense that something impossible was about to happenn and an empty feeling in my hands as he peddled and strode away from me.  It felt like magic. 
He first swam at a blueberry farm in the mountains of Stowe.  We went to pick berries on a very hot day and the owners of the farm had a pool that they let people use after picking.  Lukas was eager to go in the pool and play and having spent the entire day before in the lake swimming with a life vest he was prepared.  Then he did it.  He just did it.  He swam.  Feet off the bottom of the murky blue water and little cuped hands pushing wildlyas he held his chin on the surface of the water and grunted and gulped his way across the pool.  Now he is swimming on his back! 
It seems like all these things that we worried about...how do we teach him to sleep through the night, ride a bike, swim....they do happen.  So now as I worryabout  how I will  teach him to read and write I cling to these experiences.  Yes, we did have our part in making this happen but it was him, his will and readiness that pulled him forward into a new chapter of knowledge and skill.  Nobody can control that aspect of learning.  As parents we just have to wait, be encouraging and keep offering opportunities.  Patience and faith.