I spontaneously made plans with Bailey today and to get our day started, I asked her if she wanted to go and the question, "Do you want to play with the kids?" entered the conversation. Bailey was ecstatic in answering "of course" to this question. She wasn't happy that I wanted to shower first, she only cared about getting dressed and out the door. During this process, Bailey mentioned our neighbor Quinton and I realized I had made a dastardly error in my phrasing.
How so? Well, when our neighbor Christy babysat these two girls, I would ask Bailey if she wanted to see the kids, or play with "the kids." I guess Bailey hasn't forgotten that, so today's phrasing meant the same to her as it always has. To her, it meant we were going next door. I decided, since we had something to drop off for them anyway, we'd say "hi" to Quinton briefly before heading out. Bailey had another idea. She wanted to play with Quinton's toys (not him, he was busy eating). I left their house with Bailey kicking and screaming. Putting her in the car at that point was not an option, so we went back into our home to review our agenda for the day.
Eventually, and after something to eat, we tried this over again and she was finally okay with compromising her idea of what we were doing, with mine. So what was Mommy's idea?
Bailey and I spent a large portion of today at the Wonderscope Children's Museum. If you recall, we went there for the first time in late April, and I wasn't sure I'd ever return after Bailey left limping, which persisted for approximately five days.
Well, I took a deep breath and we made the drive. She needed a nap, or so I thought, but she was wide awake the entire drive and as we got closer to our destination, we talked more and more about Wonderscope and she'd reply, "Where's the goat?" (At least it sounded like that.)
She was very excited though when we parked the car and was ever so anxious to get out of her car seat. She kept pointing out the doors as though I couldn't see them and we got inside to have her try to run from me and start the exploration. Apparently, she had fond memories of this place...unlike mine.
Without any hesitation at all, and barely letting me sign the guest book, Bailey went on her first conquest of the afternoon. We spent over forty minutes in this room, the golf ball room. It has many different tracks to put golf balls on and watch them accelerate. She loves this, and despite any persuasion to get her into the next room, I failed. But then all of a sudden, she cleaned up her mess and was off on another adventure...
I was dreading her next choice. She wanted to go back into the room that left me haunted. That was the room she fell in, the room that caused her to limp and of course, my child wanted to play in it. It's supposed to be safe for children two and younger, but I hold grudges and debate the safety, with good reason. But, I am happy to report, that today, we did not leave this room with any new injuries, except maybe a couple extra bruises (but that kid is FULL of bruises anyhow, and I swear I don't beat her). I also held her hand every time she walked down the padded staircase she down last time.
After playing along in this room for a long duration, a little boy entered, who was definitely not two (or younger). His name was Aiden and Bailey forced him to become her friend. She was his shadow and she hit every octave known to ears with her delightful (but spine tingling) squealing.
Aiden left, but Bailey continued on, but then, just like in the golf ball room, she up and decided to move on. We found a train table in the hallway, which she loved (and if I hadn't already picked out her birthday gifts, perhaps a train table would've been a fantastic idea since she plays with them every time she sees one). We found a gardening room which had lizards, a snake, a turtle and a frog, among lots of cool equipment. Also important to note, Bailey liked the darkness of the shadow room. Then there was the health room where Bailey gave a doll a physical and tried to eat the plastic food, especially the cheese. I must admit, it did look like the real thing. We boltedout of the space room since a daycare field trip was going on, and she really liked the grocery room.
And after over 2.5 hours and a poopy diaper, we exited the building, and within seconds of being fastened into her car seat, Bailey was taking a much-needed and well-deserved nap.
I think my grudge against that place is now weakened a bit...and her fondness is only strengthened.
No comments:
Post a Comment