Determination

Walking home from dinner on Monday with the Councilwoman and the kids, we stopped by a park to let the kids play.
There was a jungle gym that piqued Lilo's curiousity. It was one of those horitzontal "ladders" at almost every playground where you hang to the ladder rungs and walk with your hands from rung to rung to get from one side to the other - like the one pictured to the above.

Lilo grabbed onto the first rung and immediately fell to the ground, screaming "daddy". She went to another item, but then came back to the ladder.
I turned away to take a phone call, and when I hung up, heard Lilo calling my name, screaming for help. I came to find her at the ladder again. Standing on the side, she was able to hang on to the first rung, and then swing out to second rung. But, as she reached for the third, she started losing grip, screamed "daddy", and crashed to the ground on her back, crying. However, as she was crying and whining, she got up and ran straight back to the beginning of the ladder and reached for the first rung and started the process over again. It seemd as if she was determined to get past the second rung. I watched as she did this over, and over, and over again. I was dumbfounded. She would whine and cry the whole time, but get back onto the ladder each time. I tried to offer help, but she wouldn't take it. I offered advice about wrapping her thumb around instead of a thumb on top with the rest of the fingers grip. She didn't take it. She did it literally 20 times (apparently, she was doing it before when I was on the phone too). She tried, over, and over, and over again. Grab, hang, swing....lose grip...scream daddy...fall.....whine....get up....start again. ...
Eventually, I decided she wasn't going to make it past the second rung, so I started telling her it was time to go. I turned to Stitch and the Grand Councilwoman to get them ready to go, when suddenly a foot nailed me between my legs. I turned around and saw it was Lilo's foot kicking about as she swung to the third...then fourth...then fifth rung and finally to the other end!!! But mommy missed it! So she got back on and did it again!!
I tell you, as a parent, I was so proud. It showed so much about her personality and determination.
We celebrated with her, and as we were leaving, she decided to get back on and do it from the other side. (contrary to my voice telling her it was time to go) Unfortunately, she fell, and started getting up to do it again.
As a parent, I was torn - we said it was time to go, but she was determined to make it across. Do I let her try again or do I stand by my word and do we go? It was a tough decision. We decided to leave, and promised we would return. She cried for the first 2 blocks. Perhaps I made the wrong decision....
I am so proud of her. It didn't matter that she didn't make it the last time (although she said she was sad because she didn't do it the last time). It wouldn't have mattered if she didn't make it at all. It more important that she kept trying. And I learned a lot about her. It will be an interseting challenge to strike the balance between not crushing her determination and spirit, and making sure my word counts.
As we walked home, she told me she had a boo-boo on her hands. I turned to see her hands all bruised. Every once in a while, as I proudly held her hand while we were walking home, she would say "ow! you touched my boo-boo!".