Have you seen that show? American Ninja Warrior? I've seen snippets of it in the past, but this summer, my family and I really got into it. Especially Trey.
For those of you who don't know, it is the most difficult obstacle course you'll ever see. Hundreds of people train for years in order to beat it, and only a few dozen make it past the qualifying rounds to advance to the main course in Vegas. In Las Vegas, there are 4 stages. Before this year, after 7 seasons of the show, no one had ever passed Stage 3. This year, two did. Both moved on to Stage 4 called Mt. Midoriyama. It's a 70-foot rope climb that has to be completed in under 30 seconds. Both competitors were able to conquer it, but only the faster of the two was able to claim the prize of 1 million dollars and the official title as the American Ninja Warrior.
What I'm saying is, this competition is brutal and intense.
And Trey wants to do it. He wants to win the title of the next American Ninja Warrior.
He's four years old.
But he's off to an early start. Already he's climbing everything and jumping parkour-style from the couch to the chair. He's working on his dismount from the kitchen bench to the carpet in the living room. He's climbing up the wall in the hallway with a foot on each side or with both feet on one side and his back on the other. He's even setting up his own obstacle course across the living room floor, running across it and slapping the buzzer on the other side (and by "buzzer" I mean "thermostat").
He has a goal, and he is determined. And if he still wants this in 15 years and the show is still on the aire, I believe he will be an American Ninja Warrior.
But as of right now...well, I think he's getting a little ahead of himself.
Yesterday we went to the park. Trey's favorite thing to do at the park is climb up the playground and zoom down the slides. Ally's favorite thing is to swing. And swing. And swing some more. So most of our park visits look like me pushimg Ally in the swing, Grayson relaxing in the baby swing, and Trey playing by himself on the slides. But this particular day there were quite a few other people at the park, too, which is always great because the kids have other little people to run around with, and I don't have to feel so bad that one of them is feeling left out.
So yesterday, Trey was playing on the slides with the other kids, and I was just putting Grayson into the baby swing so that I could give Ally a good and proper pushin' when out of nowhere, I heard that noise--that dreaded, horrific sound that no parent wants to hear while on their outing to the park.
I heard a bloodcurdling, fear-induced, out-of-control scream.
I looked up at the playground to see whose kid was screaming bloody murder, and of course, it was my kid. It was Trey, and he was on top of the slide--on top of the outside of the tube slide, mind you--and he looked absolutely terrified. And for good reason, because it's a pretty dang high slide. It's one of those playgrounds that has stairs up to the first level and then a ladder up to the second level where the slides are. So he had to be, I dunno, 20 feet off of the ground. Pretty high. Poor kid.
So it's great when there are other kids at the park to play with, but it's not so great when those kids are a little bit older than your preschooler and they show said preschooler how to do naughty things like climb up the outside of the slide. Yeah.
So I ran over to Trey, and he was freaking out. He had tears running down his face, and he yelled down to me, "I'm so scared!" My first thought was just to get him to calm down because he was not going to be able to climb down sobbing like that. So I told him that he was okay, we were going to get him down, and to take a big, deep breath. All the while, I'm thinking How the heck am I going to climb up there and get him down??
Thankfully, the same kid who led him up there in the first place and then left him up there climbed back up and helped him down. There was also a dad who was helpful in calming him down and reassured him that we would get him down. I'm very thankful for those two because I so did not want to have to climb up there myself! I would've, if I had to. But I'm glad I didn't.
So all's well that ends well. But my little American Ninja Warrior learned a valuable lesson about heights that day and will hopefully save his skills for scaling Mt. Midoriyama for the show and not for the improper use of playground equipment.
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