A few weeks ago Camden and I met some friends for a playdate at a local gymnastics center for preschool open gym. They had trampolines, foam pits, bounce houses, and many other fun activities. Much to my surprise, my normally brave, adventurous boy was scared and cried for about 45 minutes. I was at a loss as he is normally not clingy or scared and never has meltdowns for that long! After hearing him say "alligator get me" about 20 times, I finally put it together! We attended a birthday party at My Gym where they did a story with puppets about an alligator getting monkeys and it freaked Camden out. Then that Monday at storytime at the library, they did the same story...and the first bounce house you see in the gym had a big alligator on it! It all began to make sense. After I got Cam calmed down some, he had some fun, but was still very timid. Today, I decided to take him back to face our fears and see if we could get past the scary alligator! We talked about it and prayed about it before we went; I'm happy to report that it went much better. My plan of action was to go right pass the alligator bounce house to some of the trampolines and work our way back to the "scary" bounce house. Overall, Camden was way more adventurous and did not cry at all! He was still a little scared of a few things, but seemed to have a great time. I was so proud of my sweet boy conquering his fear! *Sorry, all of these pictures are from my phone, so they aren't great! Also, most of these are action shots so that explains the blurs!
Cam going through the inflatable obstacle course.
Climbing up the inflatable slide.
Down he goes!
Up again.
Rolling on the mats.
His favorite: the long trampoline, he loves to run down it and then crash on the mats!
A blurry Camden saying "Hi Mama" as he jumps/runs by!
Just jumping.
Crash.
Swinging over the foam pit.
Playing in the foam pits...he loved getting the balls out.
Kinda bouncing in the infamous alligator bounce house. :)
I guess it does look a little scary after all.
Yay, Camden!! You're right - that thing really does look scary from their perspective!
ReplyDeleteWas the gym as busy this time?
Not nearly as busy as last time, which was really nice! I think that helped too! We should go back sometime when its rainy or super hot!
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