North Pole Daredevil

I'm officially terrified. My daughter is a daredevil. At 2 years old, she's more gutsy than even I am. She's totally into thrills, living on the edge, pushing the limits, etc.

I knew this a while ago of course, but since she's only 36 inches tall, it's hard to actually test out my daredevil theory. However, in light of recent events, I have no choice but to admit the truth:

Maelin is going to grow up to be an acrobat, a rock-climber, a snowboarder, a gymnast, a scuba-diver...anything that will give me a heart attack and will give her a bit of a thrill.

I first noticed this tendency when she was about 9 months old. We lived near a park that had a merry-go-round (not many parks have them anymore) and I would put my baby in the middle of it and slowly spin it around. She'd laugh and laugh so I'd make it go a bit faster. Even more laughing. Then I'd really just spin the heck out of it and she would be in hysterics. Okay, I thought. So the child enjoys spinning. Not much wrong with that.

Last spring when I took her to Disneyland, we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Now that ride is in total darkness at times and has two pretty good drops. She was 22 months old and I took her on it expecting her to like it but also be a bit freaked out. Nope. The girl LOVED it. She loved the dark, she loved the drops, she loved all of it. Giggled and giggled and kept yelling "More!"

Over the summer, I would take her swimming and would hang out with her in the shallow end of the pool. Oh, she did alright down there for a while but when she saw the big kids jumping in the deep end, she made a beeline right for where they were and what they were doing. It was crazy: I'd stand in the water and she would just run right into the pool: it wouldn't have mattered if I was standing there ready to catch her or not. She LOVED the feeling of falling and had no fear whatsoever.

So this past weekend, we decided to take her to the North Pole. It's over an hour away so we loaded up the car very early on a Saturday and headed down. It was a beautiful fall day and as the park is in the mountains, we knew it was going to be a bit colder up there. Papa Dan, Auntie Heather, Ryan, Cole and Auntie Kat came along too. I was very excited to see how Maelin liked the rides. I had a feeling she might just love the fast ones, but you never know the mood a 2 year old is going to be in...

The child is insane. She LOVED the fast rides: the faster the better. Even when older kids were crying and begging for the ride to stop (which was actually pretty sad), Maelin was laughing and squealing and yelling and couldn't have been happier. At one point, I had ridden the Sea Dragon ride 2 times with her (while she was laughing the entire time), and I was about ready to lose my lunch. There was no way I could ride it again. As it was coming to a stop, she totally started crying and sobbing: she didn't want to get off! Bless Auntie Kat's iron stomach because she rode it two more times with Maelin: even putting their hands up in while they were way up high.

It was finally time to get her off the darn ride and I had to pull her off of it sobbing and yelling, "No no no no!" Then as soon as I got her calmed down, she ran right back to the gate of the ride and stared up at it wistfully. It was the funniest thing.

So every time I toss her high in the air, or give her a huge push on the swing set, I know what I'm setting up my little girl for. She's going to be a thrill-seeker.

Big sigh.