One of our favorite family places in Madison is their free zoo with their free play area:

Awesome slide huh? It's about 3 storeys high. But to go to the top and slide down, he has to climb through this:

I don't know what they call it but it's some sort of a net/stairs.

On his birthday last month Evan attempted to climb to the top but he got rattled with the many, bigger, much older, rambunctious kids scrambling and shouting around him. He was stuck at the top where I/we couldn't see him for around 15 minutes. Finally, after checking the second floor for the umpteenth time I saw a scared Evan seemingly trapped behind the "cage", in tears. When he saw me he grabbed the net and cried "mommeeee!" while other kids went pass by him non-stop.

I immediately went inside to guide him out, very thankful that I have lost weight otherwise I would have never managed to fit in there. I was furious with my husband for allowing him to go inside the netted stairs in the first place because it was exactly what I feared would happen. There were other areas he could play, like climbing the netted ladder:

Or this intermediate slide:

And so that was what he did for the rest of that visit.

But when we went back there last week, the cage with it's woven platform was the first thing he headed for again and this time he was ready. Here is Evan about to set a foot on the super slide.

And out he went, safe and sound.

Yes!

 Repeat procedure 10 times.

Mommy and daddy are proud of you son! You're almost a big boy now.