Splash Country

I will start by saying that our day was great!! Now I will start from the beginning where I felt like a complete failure as a Mom.. The feeling sneaks up on all of us for one reason or another, but mine hit hard yesterday morning. Every detail that poses any sense of fear for Maggie is extremely dramatic. Each tooth we have pulled has brought with it at least one hour of tears before it simply falls into my hand.. Every ride at Dollywood has been covered with tears with a burst of laughter at herself when she reaches the bottom. Yesterday morning was no different, but I wasn't mentally prepared to deal with it. We got there fifteen minutes early to insure a good chair and a few short lines. We got to the top of the line for the family tube ride. It requires three people as a minimum and five as a max, so Erica took Sydney and Brandon down the ride and then it was time for Maggie, Molly and evil Mom. Maggie had cried all the way up the stairs (normal) and was determined she wasn't going to ride. I got in the tube first, Molly hopped right in and then Maggie refused to get in the tube. I was so frustrated with her. Had I known she wouldn't get in, I could have at least let Molly ride with Erica. I was so upset with Maggie by the time I got back to the bottom of all those stairs. I wanted to spank her. I wanted to go home. I wanted to take away her birthday party. Why, why is she so afraid of everything? I don't know because I am not her. Instead of being a "normal mom" and sypathizing with her fear, I was angry with her. I took her back to the chair and made her sit with me while Molly went to ride another ride with the Pack's. Is it fair to punish a child for being scared? I don't know, but at that moment, yes it was for me. After an hour of being grumpy and feeling at a loss for adventure with Maggie, my frustration finally got washed away as she went down the very mild slides in the new Cascade area. She was filled with pride that she could do it!! What difference does it make if she rides them now or never. Eventually she will be old enough to wait at the bottom :-) Ihad a heart to heart talk with her when we got home and asked her to forgive me for being a rotten Mommy - that's all I can do is admit to her that I was wrong!!

We finally convinced Maggie to try the ride that you go down on a mat on your tummy. She was very skeptical at first, but we got her to do it.. I went down after her and my whole way down I kept thinking, "I bet she is crying and hating this". I got to the bottom to find her with smiles all over her face and filled with PRIDE!! Molly and Maggie both loved it and we rode it four times. The girls loved the wave pool and Molly was quiet the mermaid in the water. I had a lot of people ask if she was okay because she was diving in and out of the waves!! Maggie and Sydney did their own thing the whole time they were in the wave pool. While we were in the Firetower Falls area, Sydney scraped her ankle and took a chuck of skin off of the back of her foot - ouch!! She was a trooper about it. It slowed her down some, but she eventually fot back into the swing of things. Maggie and Molly went down all of the slides in that area. Maggie even played the big sister role and took Molly down a slide by herself.. I love to see her interact with Molly as the big, responsible sister!!
We left just as the storm was rolling into our area. Unfortunatley, we didn't leave in time to miss the traffic on the interstate. We left at 5:20 and it was 7:50 by the time we got home.. I was worried about poor little Miley because I left her outside, but she did great. She was a little wet when we got there, but she was safe!!