Why do I let her surprise me???

Sometimes I kick myself because Piper surprises me.  Really surprises me.  And I’m not sure why, because you’d think by now, I’d get used to all the “new” things, but, by golly, sometimes things just come out of the blue.

We have the mini little tykes slide at our house- you know, the one that’s about 2 1/2 feet tall.  Piper loves it.  It was a big deal this spring when she could do ALL of the climbing and ALL of the sliding, all by herself, with no prompting.  I probably don’t have to tell most of you, but the motor planning bit for climbing, situating, sitting, and sliding is pretty big.  And then there’s her whole over-cautious bit thrown in there, too- it was a big deal. 

So imagine my surprise when, after staying the night and Nana and Grandpa’s house, she could do this slide:

It’s the BIG little tykes slide- the steps are more of a ladder and the hand rails are farther apart.  My parents said that she went down it about a thousand times the night before, and about another thousand times that morning before we got there.  She kept going over and over and over again- she was so proud to show us what she could do.  After trip #486 that we witnessed, she was so. gosh. darn. tired that she grunted with each step up the ladder.  It didn’t stop her, though- we literally had to carry her away, narrowly avoiding a tantrum. 

We now, officially, have a child that can do the whole playground at the park.  The stairs, the slides, the high, narrow bridges, the moving bridges (although she’s significantly more cautious about these, but she can still do them)…  The whole nine yards.  She even does the corkscrew slides and big bumpy slides.  AND she’s figured out that she can flip over toward the bottom so that she doesn’t face plant off the edge.  Smart that one.  And it doesn’t matter if she knows the park or not; she figures out the equipment no matter where she is.

We can see her preschool out our back window; I’m really excited that we can “practice” with that equipment so that, come next fall when she starts there, she’ll be a pro at it all and not intimidated with all the other kids. 

I always try to have high, but realistic, expectations for Piper.  And yet, she still manages to catch me off guard sometimes.  Go, Piper, go- I hope you ALWAYS surprise us!