Jenavieve has recently discovered that she loves slides, and has done the toddler sized slides by herself (as seen here) and loves going down the big slides on my lap.
We did that a couple of times, and then one time we got all the way to the top and I started putting her on my lap to go down, and she said "all done all done all done" which is her way of saying she doesn't need help (I am 'all done' helping her). This was a tube slide, I wouldn't be able to watch her go down, and I was afraid she would get bumped around on the curves of the slide, or get stuck, or crash on her head at the bottom with nobody there to catch her. I held her hand, trying to talk her out of going down by herself, while she scooted her way into position and tried to push off. Suddenly the slide had never looked so big-how could I let my baby, not even 2 years old, go careening down this giant slide, clearly meant for kids much bigger than her? She looked up at me and said "mommy, all done!". She was very determined, and what better place to learn a lesson in independence than a place with a padded mat to land on? So I held my breath, and let go of her hand, and then scrambled to the side of the structure where I would be able to see down, to see if she made it okay.
Not only did she make it just fine, but Eric, who had been chatting with some other dads in the cafe, had seen us at the top and had grabbed the camera to snap a picture of her very first time down the big slide all by herself:
She looks a little out of control, but she came out laughing, and went right back up to do it again. After that, she didn't need our help at all, and kept going up and sliding down all by herself. Eric sat at the top and I stood at the bottom *just in case* but of course, she was fine. My big girl!
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