Shoom

When Little One swings, She yells, "Sshhooooom! Sshhoooom!" One of the deep loves of Her live at present is to "shoom" on the playground. Today Little One tried out the "gig gul shoom". You know, the one without a front and back and leg holes. The one where you have to hold on. The WHOLE time. I kept reminding Her of this little technicality, as I pushed Her very gently.
"Hold on tight, Little One".
"Tigh!"
She so had it! I was just thinking how impressed I was with Her total grasp of the concept, when Her little friend called bye-bye, leaving the playground. And it happened, just like this:
I looked up, for a brief second. Long enough to raise my hovering-behind-Little One hand for one second to wave back. The very next instant I looked back at Little One, just in time to see Her- but not in time to stop Her from- kicking Her legs up as hard as She could, and letting go.
Peanuts. I kid you not. Not at all. The child did a full 450 degree flip in the air- hair flying, arms straight out, knees in like a perfect gymnast- and land flat on Her face in the mulch.
She cried. I helped Her up. "waaaaah!" She cried, as I pulled handfuls of bark chips from Her clothes and hair. "m-m-m-maaaamaaa! Waaaah!" pointing accusingly at the empty swing, still flailing on its chains. "waaah" as She pushed out of my hug. "m-m-maama!" as She limped, one shoe dangling from Her ankle by a strap, wood chips poking out of Her head, back towards the culprit. "m-m-m-aama?" with Her tear stained face looking up at me imploringly.
"yes, love?"
"Sh-shooom! More!"

Wouldn't you think She had learned a lesson?! Wouldn't you at least think I had? But then I thought about it, and I put Her back up on the treacherous swing, and pushed Her.
"Little One, Mommy is proud of you. You fell off the swing and it scared you, but you got up and tried again."
"try! shooom!"
This time, I watched close. But She didn't let go. Maybe we learned our lessons, after all.