Gaining Confidence

We are safely home from our vacation. It was our first family vacation together and we had a wonderful time. It's not often that Miss G and I get Mr. Reserved all to ourselves for such an extended time. We reveled in the experience. Miss G especially enjoyed her Daddy and I know that Mr. Reserved's arms are sore from so much carrying and catching of our little diva.

The two made quite a pair. Watching them interact, Mr. Reserved always patient and instructive, Miss G completely inexperienced and unsure, was one of the highlights of my trip. The following sequence of pictures shows how the complete trust of a little girl in her Daddy's love can within one day transform her from a scared, teary-eyed, stand on the ladder holding up the line shrieker into a confident, self assured, cutting in line bulldozer.




This frog's mouth was her first attempt at a water slide. She actually stood up and went back down the ladder. After watching other kids on the slide and a lot of coaching from her Daddy, she finally made the leap straight into her Daddy's arms.




This was another slide with another petrified look.




After several times down the frog slide, Daddy convinced her to slide with him on the big blue slide. The water depth in this pool was 2' 6" so she was able to stand up, head above water, for any slide going into this pool.



I think she had her eyes closed the whole time.



Daddy made sure she didn't go under water.




Although we had tears, after a few minutes she was ready to go again.

She continued to go down the slides and Daddy continued to catch her. Her confidence grew all day long and by the end of the day she didn't want us to catch her. We were relegated to the grown-up chairs at the edge of the pool not even near her. I realized watching her from so far away that we had made a fundamental switch that day. Our little baby was not a baby anymore. She was big enough to catch herself.




I know as parents it is our goal and responsibility to grow our children to become independent.




I just didn't realize that it could happen so fast.




What a wonder it is to watch them bloom.