Braveheart

Something has come over my little boy. I'm not quite sure what has happened, but yesterday he began trying some new things that I thought he would never do. We went to Zoinks with some friends and he did his usual jumping in the smallest jumper. He normally jumps in there for a while then runs around and surveys the rest of the place, possibly going in one of the bigger ones but having no interest in things that are too big or slides that are remotely steep. Well yesterday was a different story. When he began to run around looking for something else to jump on, he ran right to a huge jumper in the back that consists only of a ladder for them to crawl/climb up and then two slides to choose from that are about 20 feet high, maybe more. And steep. So when he wanted me to help him get in, I thought he would jump right out again. Then when he started making his way up I began removing my shoes so I could go up and rescue him when he realized he could only get down by going down the slide. But then I was shocked and pleasantly surprised when he sat right down at the slide and flew down sideways. He landed at the bottom, looked a little stunned and then said "I did it all by myself!"

Later yesterday afternoon, as I was making dinner, Dean got a call from our friend Aaron who lives a few blocks down from us and has kids around Tommy's age. Aaron had them in one of those carts that you pull behind your bike and he was in our front yard wanting Tommy to come out and take a ride. Dean went out there with Tommy, fully expecting him to start crying when Aaron put him in, but Tommy just ran out, got in on his own and laughed the entire time. When they got back he jumped out, said "Thank you!" and continued playing outside until it got dark.

Unfortunately I didn't have a camera to document either adventure. You'll just have to imagine it.