A place to play

Here in the northwest, it rains, and rains, and rains for about 260 days of the year. It makes the scenery absolutely gorgeous, but very hard on us moms who can't take our kids out to play. However, some genius invented the indoor park. This is basically a gym filled with outside toys that kids can play freely on, after paying a small fee. I've only seen these in community recreation centers, which for us, is great, since we live right across the street from one. Here are pictures from one of our visits.



Michael's favorite toy is this roller coaster thing. It uses a ride-on toy that moves when you push your feet on the ground and a mini roller coaster with two little bumps. He has a hard time getting the car up to the top everytime, but he ususally goes down several dozen times while we are there. It's pretty funny to see him go.




Today he really wanted to play in the play house, but it was always guarded by these little girls (probalby 1 yr to 15 months) who wouldn't let him in. These girls, barely able to walk and not yet learned to talk, would put their chubby hands on his chest, scrunch up their faces, and push him back every time he tried to enter. One time a little girl pushed him for about 10 feet! you could see the shock and hurt on Michael's face when the girls did this to him. Finally, he was fed up with this nonsense, and with the girl's hand still on his chest, he pushed Her back saying "No, No, No, No, NO! SHARE!!!". Eventually he gave up and went to go climb on something else. HOwever, a renewed interest appeared in him when these adorable twin girls showed up to play. They thought Michael was great. He would be inside the house, and they on the outside, trying to shut the shutters to the windows. When Michael pushed them back opent they would giggle. Then Michael served them pretend food through the window and became very distraught when he noticed he only had one cup and two girls. He turned to me and said "Cup! CUP!!!" Sensing the urgency in his voice, I ran and found another cup, and once again, saved the day. What a great mom I am! :)