Friday, April 3, 2009

Conquering Fears

There are many things I love and admire about Stella; her sense of humor through most everything, her kindness and patience towards others, her courageous little spirit.
When Stella was about a year old, we were playing at a park, when she got curious about the ‘tunnel’ slide. She spent quite a few minutes investigating and ultimately debating whether or not she wanted to try it out. As soon as she appeared to make up her mind to slide down, I put her on the slide to head down to Glenn. By then, Stella had been down many slides, so I didn’t think much about putting her on this one. It wasn’t too steep, and Glenn was waiting with open arms down at the bottom. The moment Stella started moving down the slide, she became terrified, and has since refused to even go near any closed slides.
Today, Stella and Glenn came to see me at work. It so happens there is a little park downstairs from my office, and whenever these two come for a visit, we are often eating lunch down on the grass, kicking a ball around, or chasing each other up and down the play structure. For the first time since that dreadful day down the tunnel slide, Stella (who is now over 2 ½) decided to give it a try. She loved it and spent a good while climbing up the stairs just to go down this slide. I have loved watching this beautiful little one grow from a cautious, but curious little babe, to a brave and adventurous (and sassy – that’s my girl) kid.

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