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A few weeks ago, Jonah, Aviva, Robin, Alena, and I went to the Smith Playground & Playhouse, an amazing playground (and great playhouse, too!) where Aviva and I had recently attended two birthday parties.

At the first party, Aviva had a great time in the playhouse and on the playground. She even went down the giant wooden slide on her own without hesitation. However, she didn't come down straight and so she twisted around and got spooked. She wouldn't try it again, even with me.

We talked about how the next time (at the second party, a few weeks later), we would do it together, but when we got there she still wouldn't try it. Mommy showed up later and Aviva was willing to try it with her. They both had a great time and now Aviva goes down the slide happily (though still not on her own).

So now it was Jonah's turn. I didn't think he'd hesitate, but it turns out that he was quite scared and refused to go down the slide with me. We hung out at the top for some time, but he never warmed up to it, even as he watched Aviva going with Alena. So we all went to another area of the playground (it's is quite big).

I decided to try to talk to Jonah about it. It's so hard to know what he does and doesn't understand, but he usually does pretty well so I figured it was worth a shot. I explained that we were all scared about going down, but that it was important to be brave, and that even though we were scared, he could see how much fun everyone was having. I asked if he would like to try to be brave and try again. He said he would and though I wasn't sure he really understood, and asked who he wanted to go with and he said Mommy. So she grabbed him up and took him over to the slide. They went up to the top and he happily went down with Robin. We went back again yesterday with Nanny and Grandpa and everyone had a really wonderful time.