At the playground near our house, she will climb up the steps of the play structure all by herself. She will go down the "big" slide all by herself. God help you if you try to hold her or help her -- she will slap your hand away and scream at the top of your lungs to "LET ME DO IT MYSELF!"
This fearlessness is both exciting and terrifying. Exciting because our little girl is developing her own personality and a sense of confidence that any parent would be thrilled to see.
Terrifying because she IS fearless. Nothing phases her. She will practically jump off the top of the slide, then land on her butt and slide down, laughing all the way.
At the Mall, Caroline will walk off to explore something new without a second look behind her to see if we are following her. This means we constantly need to keep our eye on her, to make sure she is nearby. It is tiring work.
Katherine, on the other hand, PRETENDS to be fearless. In actuality, she is much more cautious than her sister.
Katherine will always look back to make sure one of us is nearby. And when she climbs stairs, Katherine will not hesitate to accept a helping hand from Mommy or Daddy.
This photo really illustrates this point:
Doesn't everyone have one of these "freakin' out over the big character" photos?
(click on photo for larger view)
This photo was taken at the Cal-UCLA football game earlier this month.
First, notice who is in the photo: Daddy and Katherine.
Next, notice what Katherine is doing. She is screaming bloody murder because the Bruin mascot behind her is scaring the HECK out of her.
What you don't see is what happened before the photo.
Katherine was PRETENDING to be fearless. She saw the Bruin mascots, and kept trying to get to them so that she could touch them.
However, as soon as she actually was put close enough to them to touch them, she realized she wasn't as fearless as she thought, and she screamed and cried until I took her away from them. (At which point, of course, she tried to get over to them AGAIN).
Second, notice who isn't in the photo -- Mommy and Caroline.
That's because Caroline had run off somewhere and Mommy was chasing her down. Like I said, FEARLESS.
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