"Grace, mommy is very proud of you!"

** this is a backdated post for Sunday August 3rd, 2008

Why am I so proud of my little girl? Well, it's nothing very big, here's the story.

Like every other Sunday, we had our family outdoor fun at Youth Park in the evening. As usual, hubby played in the Caption Ball team while I bring Grace to the children playground.

First thing that Grace did was to play at her favourite slide. Climbing up the staircase and slit down the slide over and over again. I think she did it for about 8 times. Then I stopped her for fear that she will get too tired.

We then when on to the seesaw. Initially Grace is riding it alone, with me shaking her. Then a polite little boy came and ask if he can ride with Grace. I said yes off course. But, Grace didn't like it, in fact she's scared as the boy is shaking too hard. So she came down.

Then she spotted another flight of stairs. The staircase led to a tunnel slide (photo to the right), which Grace has never tried before. When she was younger, she's kind of afraid of this kind of slides. Up she went and when she reached the top, she stood there not knowing how to proceed. She wanted to try on the tunnel, but had no idea how to get herself into it in a sitting position. So I asked her to look and learn from an older boy. She watched and watched and watched.

After about 3 or 4 watch, she finally starts to take some action. Initially she signal to me to go up and help her, but I told her I can't and she has to learn it herself. Slowly she move herself towards the tunnel and starts to climb into it and then change into a sitting position. Well, first step's done.

Now, for the previous slides, I will always hold her hands while she slit down it, because it's too steep and I was afraid that she might knocked her head. But for this tunnel slide, I couldn't possibly hold her hands! So I told her, you have to slit down yourself, mommy can't help you, but will be at the bottom waiting for you. I quickly ran to the other end and motivate her to slit down. And she finally had the courage to push herself down. Bravo! Bravo! I am so proud of her. Finally taking action to overcome her fear.

Once out from the tunnel, she wanted to do it again. This time, she also hesitated a while on sliding down, but some kids from behind gave her a kind push and she's motivated again. And she has no problem in the third and fourth time.

Here's the video of her in action.