Playing with Big Kids

Today I took Catherine to an inside park at the mall with our friends Kim and Grace. It is supposed to be for smaller children, however there were big kids who shouldn't have been inside running around jumping on all the equipment. Catherine was a little shy at first, but after a few minutes she started cruising around, and with some help from Grace, figured out how to climb up on a small platform. She was having so much fun watching the bigger kids run and jump, and before we knew it, she started crawling all around the area. She wasn't being shy, nor intimidated by the older children. At one point, she decided to go climb the stairs to a very popular slide, and would not back down even when children that looked to be about eight were trying to push past her. The next thing we know, Catherine and Grace had commandeered the entire slide. She was not about to let those bigger kids deter her from doing what she wanted. Kim and I joked about how outgoing and adventurous Catherine is already, and that as they get older, Catherine is going to be the friend always encouraging Grace to do things she's afraid to do, perhaps even things she should not be doing! It was just so amazing to see her demonstrate such a strong sense of self at such a young age.