The Swirly Slide conquered!

There's a small park near Davis that we don't usually go to. (The daycare kids that frequent that particular park are a little too old, too loud, too rowdy for my comfort. May is fine, though.) But we went today because Julia couldn't get to our usual park and then back to school on time. There were no daycare kids there, happily.

Because May is young and the park is intended for older kids, she usually doesn't spend too much time on the climbing bars. She's more a swing kid, largely because I encourage her to stay away from the jungle gym. But today, with no kids there, I let her climb.

And she decided she wanted to try the swirly slide. It's a tall slide -- higher than C's head -- and goes down in a tight corkscrew curl. Unfortunately, you have to go past three un-fenced drop offs to get there, so I had to follow her every time. (The short slide, by contrast, I can let her climb onto and slide down without any hands-on supervision except at the bottom of the slide.)

So we went up the jungle gym and down the slide over and over and over and over and over and.... for half an hour. Nonstop. For a while I was running down the ladders. Then I slid down the fireman's pole. Finally I just slid down the slide after her. Thank Heaven Julia was there to catch her at the bottom.

Repetition is the key to learning. I know that. But man, I'm tired from that learning.