Conquering Fears

When we were at the zoo with Rachel, Tess & Olivia the girls wanted to go on the merry go round. Laina said she wanted to go, until we actually got on. She got scared and decided she didn't want to go on the ride. So when I took her off she got really upset because that meant she wasn't going on the ride with Tess & Liv. So she said she wanted to go on. I put her back on and....nope, too scared! You get the pattern. At this point the ride was ready to start so I whisked Laina off the ride and outside the gate which lead to lots and lots of tears. Poor baby. Laina likes to take things slow and she had to make this merry go round decision too quickly. I should have known that this would happen because I know how Laina moves in new situations but I just thought it was something fun the girls wanted to do and I didn't think of the possible down side.

I didn't want to leave Laina with a bad memory of merry go rounds, so the following weekend Joe and I took her down to Old Orchard and brought her on the merry go round there. She did great. We had to watch the ride go about 4 times before she wanted to get on. At one point we got in line but then had to get out of line because she wasn't ready. We took it at her pace and eventually she decided we would go on, but she didn't want to ride on one of the animals. So we took our spot on the bench and she loved it so much we did it a second time.

Little one, your cautiousness will take you far in life. You will grow up to think about your actions and options before taking each step. This will be a great skill for you as you grow older. Sometimes, its makes it hard when you're little though.

Here are some shots of Laina enjoying the rides at the park.