There aren't many things as special as the beaming smile of a child who has faced a challenge and has been surprised with the gift of mastery. The following two clips showcase riffs off of skills she's been working on in gymnastics, but now realizes may be applicable outside the gym.





At the close of our oddly parkour-like session in the mall playground, Z confided as we were leaving, with obvious relish, that she "really was sort of showing off in there." She actually did strip down to the leotard before I hastily made her put her shorts back on.

Heaven help us.

We've been seeing a lot of talk about BPA in toilet paper across social media channels recently, which we first reported on back in November 2008. We thought we'd bring up a few of our posts from the archive in case you missed them.

• Some Unpleasant Sources of BPA: As it turns out, the source of BPA in toilet paper appears not to be that it is added deliberately to the product, but that a lot of toilet paper is made from post-consumer sources that include lots of recycled thermal printing paper (credit card receipts).


• Can't find time to exercise? Twelve simple ways to activate your life: It's February and if you're like me then your struggling to hang onto that last goal or resolution you made back in January. Here's an article from the archives with a few suggestions to fit exercise into daily life. Do you have other ideas you can add?


• Get Kids Moving with the Yoga Garden Game: If you're looking for a way to entertain some cagey kids during winter, check out our review of the Yoga Garden Game. Board game plus movement? Score!

Z has had a bike since she was two, and at four is just now getting into riding it. She's off to a bit of a late start.

This is not a bicycle, mind you - at least, not the kind you're probably used to. It's a balance bike - a two-wheeled, bicycle-styled conveyance lacking pedals or gears, designed for kids who are too young to ride a proper bicycle. Essentially, it's a way of teaching kids how to balance on a bike that is the direct opposite of the American preference for training wheels, and it works better. Kids learn to balance before they learn to go fast, and their abilities increase as their balance does. Once they've mastered the balance bike, they can do all kinds of fun things - like riding fast and even doing little tricks - that they wouldn't be able to do on a full-sized, far heavier bike, and by the time they're ready for a larger bike, they won't need training wheels at all.

Our vision was that Z would learn to ride this instead of a bike with training wheels or a tricycle. Grandparents intervened, and Z now has a beloved trike and bicycle at the home of one well-meaning set of grandparents, and another to come this Christmas at the other. Our entreaties to help her work out the balance bike have largely fallen on deaf ears, but we work it out by removing the training wheels from new bicycles while the grandparents are distracted, and making them disappear. We are sneaky that way, and we hold out the offer to Z of riding those bikes once she's ready for them.

Here are a couple of short clips of Z learning to ride her Kettler balance bike. She is just starting to explore its possibilities now because (a) her grandmother appears to be on board with it, as Z has a passion for fast tricycling and clearly needs somewhere to go from there, and (b) she has learned a bit of balance, and has seen videos of other kids on similar balance bikes, and now has a sense of the possibilities for speed and putting oneself in harm's way, which she is quite keen to do.





Here's a clip of a kid who has advanced a bit beyond Z's skills.



And here's another one, this one for a different brand of balance bike than the one we have. There are many brands out there, each with their own little design details, and prices for most brands are between $80-$120.

Quick Picks

Here are a few brands and models we'd recommend based on their specs and prices.

PV Glider: Made of lightweight alloy, Glide's balance bikes weigh only six pounds, making them very easy to maneuver. A hand brake may be overly complicating for younger riders, but other parents report their children using it effectively. Solid rubber tires. Features a 10" footplate for resting feet on during movement. $100 on Amazon.com.

Kettler Sprint: Mudflaps, cute styling, inflatable tubeless tires, a hand brake, and a kickstand. Based on our experience, this bike's a winner - the two limitations we found are (a) it takes a bit of work to put it together, although we were never stumped, and (b) you need to have a wrench handy to adjust the seat height. $110-$120 on Amazon.com.

Skuut: Made of wood, with inflatable tubeless tires and a seat with fewer height options. Ten pounds. $82 on Amazon.com. Similar to the SmartGear balance bike that is widely available, but Skuut has an established reputation for their balance bikes, while SmartGear is a new entrant to this market.

The one truly noncompetitive company in this arena, in our view, is the LIKEaBIKE brand, which sells its models for more than three times the price of any of its competitors. Their metal version, the Jumper, sells for $269, and the company's wooden design runs $315. Although LIKEaBIKEs come with higher-quality tires than other brands, the key difference appears to be in the country of manufacture - LIKEaBIKEs are made in Germany, whereas virtually every other brand's bikes - Kettler, Skuut, Strider, SmartGear, and the recent U.S. startup Glide included - are made in China. We tend to support domestic and European production when it can remain nearly competitive on price or when there is a clear difference in quality; in this case, the gap is just too large and the differences too subtle to justify the price gap from a consumer standpoint.

You can price and evaluate different balance bikes on Amazon.com.