So I got this article forwarded to me from the NYT's most popular and while I kind of laughed it off at the time, it did stay on my mind later in the afternoon.
Finley and I rolled up to one the nice playgrounds near us and he immediately jumped out of the car and made a run for the giant alpine slides as he watched some kids going up and down. He paused at the bottom of the huge staircase and said, "Can I go up there, mommy?" I said "of course" and he quickly started up, but after five or six steps turned around and invited me up. Ug. I don't know whether it was my tired-30-weeks pregnant self or that NYT's article impacting my decision more...but I said, "No thank you, go can go by yourself." In a surprising turn of events, he actually seemed okay with going solo and continued up the mountain with lots of reminders from me to use the handrail.
Gulp, he climbed higher and higher with me being farther and farther away. Can you get a sense of how high up this slide is??? I almost ran up to join him out of fear he'd fall before ever reaching the top, but I maintained my composure and he made it!
He excitedly called out that he was ready and then went down with no prompting or cheering from me.
I was truly in shock and awe that he climbed up there and slid down all of his own. My little fraidy-cat was no more! Has our timid caterpillar finally sprouted wings and taken off??? At least for today...here's his second trip down where he waited for another little boy to come and go down with him at the same time. The boy could've cared less, but luckily Finley's reading of subtle social cues isn't quite that sensitive yet.
He went down one more time and then it was off to the sandbox for some more low-key and low-elevation fun. Phew :)
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