Playground Daredevil

Today, Autie and I went to the park, as we've been doing for months. On a normal day, I follow her as she climbs up the stairs of the playscape, crawl/walk around the little circle at the top, and then she sits on my lap as we go down one of the three slides. Today, I went up the stairs with her, and she went straight to the swirly slide and tried to hurl herself down head-first. I panicked and grabbed her little feet at the last second. She screamed at me as I pulled her back up, and put her on my lap to go down the slide. I realized that her screams were her way of showing her ever-growing independent streak. So, at the bottom of the slide, I decided to let her try a solo flight. I watched in amazement as my little one go up the stairs all by herself and run to the slide and go down, once again head-first! Luckily I had my camera and was able to catch one of the many runs.

Autumn at the Playground from Karen Wallace on Vimeo.

I swear, we were there for an hour and it was the same thing over and over. I guess that I knew this day was coming. She is growing up so fast and I am realizing that she is gaining more confidence and independence every single day (much to my dismay!).