In Which Moriah Conquers a Slide

Today we spent the afternoon at an International Festival held at a nearby park (I hope to post more about that tomorrow), and the highlight of our time there for Tobin, Shav, and Moriah was probably the simple fun they got out of playing on the playground equipment.  Forget the beautiful ethnic dresses, the music and dances, the booths with their great varieties of displays, the friends we bumped into and stopped to chat with.  Just make sure there's time to do the most important thing: enjoying the playground!  :)

Moriah had fun climbing up on the play structure and going through a tunnel, but she was very hesitant to go down a slide--even the littlest one.  Finally, after we had been there a while, she sat down at the top and let me scoot her down the slide as I held her around the waist.  The next time, she went down with only my hand holding securely to her arm; and the next time, I only needed to hold her hand for her to have the confidence to push off and go down.  And then came a number of times of her going down while holding my hand, but I really wasn't giving her much physical support at all--just the mental comfort of knowing I was there, holding onto her.

Finally the moment came that I had been waiting for: she did it all by herself.  :)  And isn't that what motherhood is all about: holding on until the child is ready to let go, then standing back and applauding as they launch out?

Here is how it looked when Moriah launched today...  :)

What a big, brave girl!  :)

Well, just when we'd gotten the hang of an all-by-herself-on-the-slide girl, big brother Tobin came over and started swinging on the bar at the top of the slide before going down.

 So, Little Miss Imitator had to do the same.  :)

She learns so much by watching her big brothers and following in their footsteps...

...footsteps that lead her, one small step at a time, to launch herself out of the nest.

And today, her step was conquering a slide.  :)