Cojones

Not to brag, but its my opinion that Casey has cojones of steel. In order to keep this blog rated PG, I'll translate and say that little Casey is very brave. It is very cool to watch him overcome his fears. Last night (6-12-10) we were at the park, playing on the jungle gym. This time, Casey climbed to the top, and sat on the top of the 'big boy slide'. He carefully inched forward... until.. banzai!!! Down he went. All by himself. I just stood there in disbelief. His confidence soaring, he proceeded to climb his way back to the top of the slide, and slide down.. 3 additional times!
Afterwards, I confirmed with his Mom that this was the first time he did this slide by himself.

Its hard to explain, but little stuff like this is really cool to experience.

Perhaps of greater overall importance is the fact that Casey also began going down stairs, by himself, on his own two feet. Sometimes, he still prefers Daddy's 'elevator ride', which is our special term for when I sit at the top of the stairs, and he takes a running start and jumps into my arms for a 'ride' down the stairs. So, he's climbing up stairs, decending down stairs by himself now. Us adults might not think much of it, but consider how intimidating a staircase must be to a 2.5' tall, 30 lb. toddler.
There is also a humorous/ dangerous side to his cojones of steel. He loves to climb chairs, couches, tables. Little guy is pretty resourceful too, he will strategically place items to help him climb. For example, this morning, at breakfast, he climbed on the chair, and used it to climb onto the dining room table. I was about to bust out laughing, and give him a high-five, but then the responsible parent in me won out. I suppose I shouldnt be encouraging climbing on tables, where he can potentially take a 3 foot fall and land on his head.