The Daring Child

Emily and I went with M to the local amusement park this week.

I had a ton of fun watching Emily explore.

When we got there, I asked her what she wanted to do, did she want to go on the tea cups or the spring ride? She said no, she didn't want to do either of those. I directed her over to the kiddie rides and asked if she wanted to go on those. No, came the response.

Finally, I said, let's go on the tea cups and then decide what to do from there.

We got on the tea cups, and Emily giggled the whole time. We were the only ones on the ride (rain was threatening) and I think the operator let us go a little longer than he normally would. I had so much fun laughing with Emily. She didn't stop laughing the whole time the ride was going.

We got off the tea cups and went immediately to the spring ride. It shoots you maybe 20 or 30 feet in the air and then drops you back down 10 or so feet. And so on. It makes your tummy feel all funny. Again, Emily laughed like a fiend the whole time.

We got off that and hit the Bobsled rollercoaster ride. Again with the laughing. And screaming before we would go down a hill.

This kid is seriously fearless.

And it is odd to me because she is normally fairly timid. She takes some time to warm up to new people and situations. She has to check things out before she is comfortable somewhere, but take her to an amusement park and she wants to go on the biggest, fastest and scariest rides.

This year was slightly different because she was also excited about the water rides. Well, after a bit.

We got changed into our suits after we rode all the land-based rides that Emily was big enough to ride. (When that kid hits 48 inches, look out - she's going on EVERYTHING in that park. Mike better be with us because there are several that I won't even consider.) As we walked to the water part of the park, Emily started saying that she didn't want to go swimming. I was a mean mommy and told her too bad, we were going anyway.

We picked out a tube slide ride that required a two-person tube. I dragged that stupid tube up to the top of the ride and Emily started telling me she didn't want to go. I told her again that it was too bad, there was only one way down and that was in the water. She reluctantly got in the raft and then chanted "no" the whole way down.

We got to the bottom and I asked her if she wanted to go again. "YES!" came the enthusiastic reply. So I dragged the tube back to the top again. And again, Chicken Little started to back out on me. And I made her go down with me again, with her chanting no the whole way.

We ended up going down that slide at least half a dozen times. She loved it.

I took her over to some smaller, kiddie-sized slides and she loved those even more.

I had so much fun that day, watching her walk around the park. It was a Mommy & Emily day and I am so glad to have had it. And having had that time with her, it makes me that much more excited to take Lucy and Mike back there with us later this summer.