For the last month or so Emma has not been able to climb up the car slides at the mall play area. She always wanted my help and would say, “I can’t do it” when I would encourage her to try. I have told her that she needed to crawl up, etc but she just got ad and frustrated after giving a half-hearted try.
Today, however, was a different story. While I was not paying attention, ahem, she proceeded to start crawling up the purple car slide. I watched out of the corner of my eye and when she got 2/3 up I praised her and said, “See you did it, I told you you could do it!” She got to the top and said, “I did it.” She was very proud of herself and got the Emma look–where she points her upper lip down while smiling.
It is times like this that make all the tough times worth it. I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else at that moment. She conquered something that she felt she couldn’t and now it is no stopping her.
Suffice it to say that she went up and down that slide about 30 times. She proceeded to run all over the place–her mood was definitely more upbeat– before going to the tree with the slide that goes through it. This slide is much higher than the car slides but she proceeded to climb up it and then give me the look and say, “I told you.” She proceeded to go up and down on both sides of the tree and I had to get it on video. The video attached is of her going up and down the tree slide.
She passed a milestone today. She conquered her fear and doubt. I look forward to the many more times that she does this!