Courage

I try to get the whole family out on a weekend, rather than sticking around the house (seeing as I feel I'm here all the damn time!) - last weekend we went to the botanical gardens, this week we went to the arboretum.

The Toddler loves the playground there - it has four swings, two of which are the type you lay down on. In an effort to keep her away from spending two hours on a swing, we took her over to the climbing castle. And she took to it like a fish out of water.

Last time I went with her, she climbed through two rope segments to get to the second level. This time, she was climbing big round ladders and frames to heights much higher than we could reach, then going down the slide. Each time she made it to the top of the slide, she'd proclaim 'I did it!' and throw her hands out, before sliding down and saying "I did it! I do it again!" and repeating. I showed the husband where she had climbed up to last time - it's no mean feat, with the rope segments letting you see clearly how high you are. I only let her get to that second level before bribing her back because I was there alone with her and had The Bubby in a carrier on my front, so I couldn't go up and rescue her if need be.

Before we knew it, she was up on the fourth floor.

I felt sick.

It was so high, it was full of bigger kids, and other than going back the way she came, the only way to get down was a big, twisted, enclosed slide. And there is no way I would ever go down that slide.

I sent The Husband up - I was expecting to hear her thump and bump her way down and come down bawling, but someone elses daughter appeared at the bottom. And then someone elses son. And then just as The Husband kicked his thongs off to start ascending, she appeared. Facing backwards, and on her hands and knees, looking a little shocked, The Toddler.

She was so brave.

There were no tears (from either of us!) but she hasn't really stopped talking about how it was dark and scary.

It will be interesting to see if she wants to do it again next time we go.