Chutes and ladders, nothing scares Willow

Willow is fearless.
Absolutely fearless.
She and I had a banner day at the park on Monday. She hit the swings, the slides, the see-saw and the rope swing, and we explored the leaf-littered picnic grounds. We also watched the fish and turtles at the pond Willow likes.
But probably the highlight of the day for Willow is when we climbed a big hill and watched a trio of boys, all roughly the age of first-graders, disappear into a metal chute and zip (at the speed of sound, no doubt) to the bottom of the hill about 25 feet below. They were going fast.
Of course, Willow wanted to zip down the chute too.
I had no intention of letting her head down the death trap, but I let her explore the entrance at the top of the hill to which the father of the boys said, "You know it goes really fast." I assured him I wasn't going to let my toddler girl go down the chute. The father left with his boys. I guess Willow intimidated them.
After Willow explored the top of the slide for a while, we trekked down the hill and examined the bottom of the chute. Willow got up on the slide and tried to climb into it, to no avail; it was slippery. But she did get to experience the slide a bit, sliding down from the farthest she could climb up.
I took the accompanying picture, which makes it look like Willow is finishing up her long and fast descent of the chute.
But fear not parents, she had slid only a foot at this point.
Willow is having more and more fun on the playground equipment wherever we go. It won't be long before she conquers such things as the scary-fast slide at the local playground.

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