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When I was little, my Mummy and Daddy took me to an indoor play park. Woolly came too.
I’d never been to an indoor play park before.
There were lots of things to play on. I climbed on the climbing frame with other children.
I went all the way to the top. It was like climbing a mountain, but not quite so big.
I slid Woolly down the slide, but nobody screamed. I slid down after to collect him.
There was a bouncy area with trampolines and rubber tyres. Woolly and I bounced up and down, up and down.
I wanted to push Woolly in the baby swing, but a daddy was pushing his baby.
I waited for my turn.
“Let’s let the babies use the baby swing,” my daddy told me. “Look over there, Tig!”
My daddy pointed to a huge net.
“Just like a spider web,” Daddy said.
“Woolly’s web!” I laughed.
I ran over to the rope web. I stuffed Woolly into my collar and started to climb with both hands.
Whoah! I hung on tight! It was all wobbly! I felt like I was about to fall. But Woolly wanted to climb higher in his web.
I held tight and climbed carefully.
Suddenly, my foot slipped off the rope! I tried to hold on, but I let go! I fell down, down.
I crashed into the ground! Crash!
After the hurt went away, I crossed my arms and sat there. I couldn’t climb it!
Woolly wiggled out of my collar and hopped to the ground. He fell, too, laying with his red legs all spread out.
“Falling hurts, Tig,” Woolly said. “It can make you feel like giving up. You feel like you might never be able to do it.”
I kept sitting too.
Woolly hopped up. “But when you fall, it’s important to get back up. Sometimes you have to fall to learn things.”
I didn’t want to fall.
“I remember when you were a wee baby learning to walk,” Woolly told me. He took slow, wobbly, steps, like a wee baby, then fell again. “You fell lots, then, Tig. But you kept at it, and now you can walk. You can even run, and jump and climb.”
I nodded, smiling. I could do so much more than when I was a baby!
“When you first went to the play park, you didn’t know how to climb the climbing frame.” Woolly reminded me. “But you kept at it, and today you climbed to the top of the climbing frame!”
Still smiling, I looked at the web again.
“Hey, Tig,” Woolly whispered. “Even spiders fall.”
Woolly started to sing. “Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the water spout.”
Woolly climbed up one of the poles holding the net up. I sang along. “Down came the rain and washed poor Incy out,”
“Out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain,” Woolly stood near the top of the pole, holding four of legs out. His yellow stomach and red legs looked just like a sun.
“And Incy Wincy spider climbed up the spout again.”
“Go for it, Tig!” Woolly said.
Yes, I thought! There was no rain to wash me out at the indoor play park. I wanted to climb up again, just like Incy Wincy.
I climbed up the net, to where Woolly was. I fell more times, but I kept climbing back on. I crawled around the web, just like a spider.
When Daddy came, I dropped Woolly on his head. Daddy screamed “A spider!”
“It’s only a toy spider!” I told him.
I like climbing on the web. I like trying again, like Incy Wincy. I love Woolly.