Duke Has Heart

This summer we bought season passes to a small local water park that the boys have been thoroughly enjoying. It's been fun to watch as they get more brave each time we go with all the water slides. A few weeks ago, Duke started going on a medium sized slide on my lap. The following week, he transitioned to going down this slide by himself. And he would go on that slide at least 20 times in a row, which is great for me because all I have to do is wait at the bottom for him.

One day last week, he walked up the stairs to the slide, but there were a lot of other kids waiting to ride the slide and by the time Duke got to the top, he had kinda been boxed out at the top and got trapped in the corner. It's a natural sequence of events when you're two and you have no idea what "wait in line" means and you just try to weasel your way to the top. Needless to say, Duke was not happy and I ended up having to climb the stairs and rescue him.

He was sobbing for a long time. When he was on the edge of composure, he pointed to another medium sized slide and said "that one". This particular slide he hadn't gone down by himself yet, so I was really shocked that he wanted to go down in, especially considering his emotional state.

I took him over to the edge of the pool by the other slide and Duke immediately said "no!" and ran the other way. I was confused and trying to figure out what he wanted, when I realized he was going up the ramp to a huge slide. The biggest slide in the park, matter of fact, and probably 4x as big as the medium sized slide from before. He practically ran to the top and when we got to the top, without hesitating, he sat on my lap (height restrictions, he had to sit on my lap) and we went down. And then again. And again. And again.

I was so proud of him. I loved that as a two year-old, he got shoved out of the way, and then rushed over to go down the biggest slide in the park. I hope he can always have that much determination and courage.


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