Jump Zone

A friend of ours invited Miriam to the Jump Zone, a fun play place with huge inflatable bounce houses and slides.  

I was excited, but nervous because Miriam isn't exactly a dare devil or one who loves to try new things.

And I was right.  

She was terrified when we got there and clung to my side.

Until she saw the bouncy horse, and then she was in heaven.  As her friend Reagan went from slide to slide, Miriam followed her around, dragging the horse with her so no other kid could steal it.

I thought to myself, this is going to be awfully boring (I had left Eliza with a babysitter so I had my hands free), and I felt a little bad for our friends that we weren't much fun.

  So I gave her some time to acclimate the the chaos.  Finally after many attempts to bribe and "invite" her to try them out, and many refusals on her part, I decided there was only one way to get her to try.  I had to do it with her.  It worked.

Don't get me wrong.  I am not one of those parents who is going to force my child to try something that they really (kicking, screaming, crying) are scared of.  But I really felt that she would love it, if she could only get over her fears and give it a try.

And she did.  After I went with her the first time, she went down the slide nonstop.

We decided to try a bigger one.  The same thing happened again.  So, I took off my shoes and went up with her again.  

She LOVED it!

And yet a bigger slide.

You guessed it, I had to try this one with her as well.

There was one more, even bigger, slide we didn't get to, but we'll save that one for next time. 

And to reward these girls who played so hard (notice the red cheeks), popsicles.