Courage

One of Ted's favorite cartoons is Pocoyo, a Spanish cartoon that also has an English version.  The main character, Pocoyo ("little me"), is a toddler whose best friends are a duck ("Pato"), an elephant ("Elly"), and a dog ("Lula"). 

Typically, we watch the cartoon on YouTube.  Below is one of Ted's favorite episodes.  The "gang" decides that it wants to play on a large slide, but Pocoyo is too scared to get on the slide.  His friends don't want him to be afraid, so they ride with him, and Pocoyo learns that the slide isn't as scary as he thought.



Little Ted had a Pocoyo-like moment last month on one of our outings to the zoo.  The playground there has a large slide that comes out of a tree house.  On our last outing, Ted noticed the slide for the first time.  There were lots of kids his age at the playground, and they were enjoying the slide, so he decided that he should check it out. 

We worked our way into the tree house and looked down the slide.  The slide is high and big, and people move down it pretty fast.  Little Ted wasn't too sure that he wanted to try it out. 

We let other kids take a turn, and I tried to get him to ride with me.  He wasn't having anything to do with that.  In fact, he tried to push me down the slide without him.

Then, a little boy about a year older than Ted came into the tree house.  He was waiting for his mother to reach the bottom of the slide so he could take his turn.  In the meantime, he decided to talk to Little Ted.  He told Ted that he was going down the slide, and that his mommy would catch him.  Then, Little Ted watched him take his turn.

That was enough to convince Ted that the slide wasn't so bad.  He decided he wanted to try it out, so we called daddy over, and he caught Little Ted at the bottom of the slide.  Not surprisingly, he enjoyed himself and wanted to try it again.

I was very proud of my munchkin that day.  He had the courage to face his fears - with a little encouragement - and tried something new.