Oliver & the Carousel

I am not sure if you can see it in his face, but Oliver is scared. And that scared face breaks my heart.

We took the kids to our favorite park on Saturday afternoon. It was later in the afternoon and we basically had the place to ourselves. I love that! This particular park has a carousel in the middle and Oliver loves to ride it. He typically runs to the swings and then makes a beeline for the carousel. We usually ride it a few times before only the promise of a snack makes him release the horse's rein.

We followed a similar pattern yesterday. Swings and then a run around the playground and then over to the carousel. He never knows where to get in line and just stands by the gate surrounding the carousel hoping someone will let him in.

With our tokens in hand, we selected an up & down horse and waited for the bell. Oliver was strapped onto his horse and I was standing next to him for support. Unlike all of our other visits, once the ride started moving he panicked. He grabbed onto my shoulder with both arms and tried to climb off. He whimpered and had a frightened look on his face.

His fear brought back memories of Waverly. All of a sudden, she grew so scared of not feeling secure. She became fearful. Oliver had that same look in his eyes yesterday. It was sad to see. It was Sanfilippo. He was trying so desperately to communicate with me in those few moments of going around on the carousel. All I could do was put my arms around him and tell him it was okay, the ride was almost done. 

When we got off he ran off and instead of running back to the gate for another spin he took my hand and walked me out of the park.