"You cannot push any one up a ladder unless he be willing to climb a little himself."

Opeie has never really been the physically adventurous type, he loves to run about and is one of the happiest children I know but he's never really shown interest in attacking the climbing frames at the park or shooting up trees. Obviously that's never going to be an issue but secretly (and it seems ridiculous to me now) I had always wished he was a little more that way. As I lay in bed writing this it has come to my attention that my reason for feeling like this is because of how I was when I was younger, what I am only realising now though is that this memory of myself like that is around the age of 7 and Opeie is still only 3 (for a couple more weeks anyhow).

We had tickets to go to the theatre for us all yesterday but Mrs M had to work and Seth wasn't with us so we asked our friends Emma, Wilberforce and Waldon if they wanted to join us. Emma mentioned that Wilberforce had his second rock climbing class and would Opeie be interested in joining in? My first thought was 'there's no chance he'll do that!' But I booked it anyway on the off chance.

I told him all about it and he'd seen the pictures of Wilbs on Facebook high up the wall the week before. He was really excited about going (I was sure he wouldn't make it two feet off the ground though). We arrived at the climbing place and Opeie entered with a loud 'Wow!'

Wilberforce and his troops followed us in and the fun began. Neil the instructor was a top bloke and really made Opeie feel at ease as he attached the harness. Opeie was chatting away which was great as usually he would seem a little anxious at going out of his comfort zone. I on the other hand was getting very anxious. It looked like so much fun as Wilberforce shot up the wall and I really hoped Opeie would give it a try.

Opeie's turn and as he climbed up the wall I was left at the bottom in complete awe, thanks to Neil's support and motivational words Opeie clearly felt at ease and made his way up without over thinking what he was doing. It was amazing to watch and his enthusiasm and strength blew my mind.

Opeie didn't quite make it to the top on his first attempt but for the second attempt Neil put a monkey at the top and explained to Opeie that he was stuck and Opeie was the only one that could save him. As Opeie climbed, Neil told him to say things like 'don't be scared monkey, I'm coming to save you' and before he knew it he was right at the top clutching the monkey, I was so proud of him.

It wasn't quite the save the monkey had hoped for when Opeie threw him down and then landed on him on his descent, it did make us all chuckle though.

The class was for 30 minutes which was more than enough time for a couple of hardcore rock climbing three year olds. 

Opeie had completely shocked me and I was left thinking 'what else can I throw him into' because as a doting parent I got as much out of the experience as he did. The best part of it for me though was the excitement afterwards and how much throughout the day I heard "daddy I've had such a fun day" and "I'm so proud of my rock climbing". 

Children are amazing! And Opeie had shown me a side of him I'd never seen before, I couldn't be more proud. We're all looking forward to class next week and it's another chance to hang out with his partner in climb (ba-dum tis) Wilberforce.