Independence

It must be birthday season. It seems that about 3/4 of Riley's class is turning three this May. It has been fun. Some have parties at school, some have parties at home, some have parties at the park. Riley is definitely starting to understand that birthdays are special, and has been very excited to share in his friends' special days. Today was his friend Everett's birthday party. It was held at Hanes Park, which is home to the tallest playground/slide I have ever seen. I remember driving past the park last year when they finished constructing the slide and thinking that surely no one under the age of 10 could use it. It looked terrifying. Riley's known about Everett's party for a few days and kept talking about it as I was putting him to bed last night. It was also the first thing he mentioned this morning. He practiced signing "Happy Birthday" in the car on the way to the park. When we arrived, I expected him to hold our hand as we walked into the park. Instead, as soon as he recognized a few of his friends, he let go of our hands and ran towards the playground. Normally when he's at a playground, he'll want us to be nearby, if not right with him on the slides. Not today. We watched from at least 30 feet away as he climbed the scary, tall ladder that led to the to top the scary, tall slide. And then down he went. I expected him to come out the bottom crying, or at least fearful enough about the experience that he'd need one of us to help him up the ladder and down the slide if he was brave enough to try it again. Nope. He didn't even so much as glance in our direction to see if we were watching/cheering. He just ran back to the ladder and started climbing again. Neither Casey nor I discussed it at the time, but after leaving the party and putting Riley down for his nap, we both commented on how it took all the willpower in the world to not get closer to help him in case he fell or to just be with him as he experienced this brave new adventure. He's growing up so fast and seems to need us less and less, which is sad but also amazing at the same time. Independence is a good thing, even if it breaks our hearts a little bit each day.