What a Difference a Year Makes

Last year around this time Rowan and I started going to playgrounds where he could explore climbing, sliding and swinging in the great outdoors. Back then he was just starting to walk and was not too confident in his own abilities. I helped him up onto the structures and he usually wouldn't move unless I was right by his side. Well, that was then...

Today was a completely different story.

As we drove into the parking lot he squealed with joy and started kicking his legs really fast as the excitement mounted. He couldn't get out of the car fast enough. I was really happy to see the ease with which he approached the climbing structures. He was so confident that he could climb anything and everything that this particular playground had to offer.


He soon concurred the smallest structures and then moved onto the bigger more challenging ones. I was impressed and felt that it would be all right for him to play on the high structures until he decided that walking along them wasn't exciting enough. No, he had to run which was fine because there were rails all around and no way for him to fall off.


But then it came to the point where he just wouldn't slow down. He just ran straight to the slide where he fell down on his behind and slid down. He did this over and over again. I was a nervous wreck because at any moment his momentum could flick him over the side of the slide. I did my best to prepare myself in case I had to catch him which meant I had to run from one slide to which ever one he decided to go for next. Boy! He is such a boy!

By the time we left I had a huge tension headache and decided that we would choose our playgrounds very carefully from now on. I just can't believe what a difference a year makes.

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