Sunabe Baba Park

Although Sydney can be quite the independent little girl, she can also be kind of a weenie. Take for example a typical experience at a park. She would generally want me to push her on the swings for like 5 hours, then maybe go down one of the smallest slides there, and she'd be good to go. Well, my neighbor Jess invited us to join a playgroup at Sunabe Baba Park on Wednesday, and feeling a pull to get out and do more fun stuff during the week, I took her up on it.

The park was really cute, but unfortunately we got there just after a day care/preschool group arrived. There were tons of kids! Sydney enjoyed taking a little ride on this horse thing:

All the pedals were broken so it had to be pushed in a circle.

So I took pictures while that little boy did all the work.

Thank goodness Jess was there for the jungle gym. I was holding Shawn in the Bjorn and couldn't really get in there to help Syd, who didn't dare crossing those precarious ropes on her own. Nor did she want to go down the roller slide by herself, but she was willing to go down it once on Jess's lap.

And even then it looked like she was holding on for dear life.

Jess's 2 year old daughter Claire, on the other hand, was quite the brave little girl- running around, climbing ropes, and going down big slides all by herself.

I couldn't help but be proud of my timid girl when she at least attempted to climb up some ropes.

Hooray!!

She climbed up about halfway, then came back down when the handles widened and she couldn't hold onto both of them anymore. Trying to build her confidence, I gave her a high five and complimented her on how high she'd climbed. A few minutes later she tried again, with the same result. On attempt #3, I told her to just hold onto one handle with both hands and keep climbing. With just enough support to ensure her I wouldn't let her fall, she climbed all the way to the platform. Victory! She was so excited that she did it "by herself." I love seeing her face when she is proud of herself. Makes me proud to be her Mom.

Not that I'm the most brave person now, but I remember being a pretty big weenie when I was a kid too. I was always scared of roller coasters, so my Mom would go on some lame amusement park ride with me while the rest of my family partied on the high thrill rides. Then she got tired of that and forced me to ride the Corkscrew with her at Geauga Lake when I was around 8 years old. I remember crying in line and keeping my eyes closed during the whole ride... but I totally loved it. That marked the beginning of many crazy roller coaster rides, courtesy of Geauga Lake and Cedar Point. Hopefully my Sydney will have a change of heart too and realize how much fun a playground can be!