Define "Safe"

Okay, so for Christmas, Santa Claus brought all four of my little people a trampoline to share.

I KNEW that Bregon would be ecstatic, as he has wanted one of these since he was four and our friends in Tyler had one that he borrowed every weekend.

I figured that the babies would adore it, too. After all, they had always enjoyed anything and everything that allowed them to boingy their way through life.

It never occurred to me that my boingy-est baby, my daredevil Kaiden, would manage to actually be afraid of it.

After sitting on my back porch for almost an entire week because of the rain and mud, husband finally was able to get up enough gumption to grab my eldest and attempt assembly.

The whole thing went up in under an hour, as opposed to the many reviews and advice that we had read online about having to be a rocket scientist to get the whole thing assembled and together safely.

My eldest, Bregon, immediately hopped up into the enclosure and spent the evening bouncing and boingy-ing away.

Eventually he came inside with a request for hot chocolate because his insides were even cold, poor dear!

The next afternoon, Bregon and I dressed the babies, put their socks on, and toted everyone outside to the trampoline.

The entire time we dressed them, we talked about going outside to bounce on our new boingy machine.

Kian went inside first. Bregon had to climb up with him to get him moved away from the doorway so that we could get Kaiden and Vivienne inside, too.

All three babies just sat there, with lower square lips out, staring at us with the biggest baby eyes.

I very carefully and gently started to bounce the mat a little so that they would get the idea of what it was for.

That was when Kaiden did it. He looked DOWN. Not only could he see his little doggie bouncing up underneath us in an attempt to try and come up too, but he could see THE GROUND!

I suppose for him, it must have been very much like someone having to walk out over a canyon on bridge that could be seen through or something.

He was SCARED! He jumped up in fright, and tried to run to me, but only ended up getting bounced a bit before he tripped and fell into me.

I did manage to catch him somehow, but his mouth was already open in one of his very super sonic silent screams that is so loud that no sound can come out!

He just stood there, clutching me as tightly as he could, trying to get himself together.

Kian and Vivienne just watched him. Finally, Vivienne tried standing up. She found her balance fairly quickly, too.

Pretty soon, she was walking very fast (almost running) in circles around all of us, laughing the entire way.

Kian never would stand up, but he crawled around behind her, chasing her and giggling as well.

Poor Baby Kai, all he could do was stand there and clutch my shirt with both hands and sniffle.

I was finally able to stand up and he did let me hold his hands (tightly) and bounce very gently.

It's really funny, though. I cannot get over Kaiden being afraid of the trampoline. This is the child who finds it fun to walk around the top of his play-yard gate.

Kaiden is also the one who prefers to ride his Bounce & Spin Zebra while standing on the saddle part, jumping on it as it spins 'round in circles.

Yes, this is the very same little daredevil who was found swinging from my grandmother's very old, antique, dining room chandelier just last week.

He felt perfectly safe scaling the dining room table and standing on the points of his toes to reach the very edge of the chandelier arms, yet he doesn't feel safe sitting on the super-enclosed, extremely sturdy, trampoline.

Kaiden was even the first to figure out and scale the new tricycle. He loves to bounce on his new rocking-spring horsie too.

I have really learned something about toddlers this week. They have their very own, very different definition of "Safe."