Taking the Scenic Route

Took the kids to Exploration place today to meet up with a couple of other moms/kids.  It went pretty well.  I even exchanged phone numbers with another mom.  Why does this feel like dating?  lol  We both felt like we had met before, but neither of us could pinpoint when.  She really seems neat though, and her ds is a doll.  He is about 16 months old with longish curly hair.  She does “play therapy” with kids, so she wasn’t freaked out by Zane.  It is weird how I seem to be gathering new friends who either have a special needs kid or work with them.  One funny thing, I kept forgetting her name…Jenny.  How boneheaded is that?!?

It was nice going with Dori, who knows both of my kids really well.  (and works as a tutor for dyslexic and LD kids)  It wasn’t nearly as overwhelming.  We kept “trading kids” as one or the other of our older boys would wander off, which meant a lesser work load for both of us.  We also took turns nursing our girls, without having to chase down the boys, which was nice.

I am really going to have to get a membership to that place again.  I went enough with the last membership to at least make the membership worth it, but I think I would use it a lot more now.  Zane doesn’t run from thing to thing quite as badly, so it isn’t as exhausting as it was then.  Since he became interested in ‘playing kitchen’ from his speech therapist (never mind how many times I tried to play kitchen with him before, he finally seemed interested in it when she did it.  kids! ), he had a point of common interest in pretend play.  He interacted with the other moms (Dori and Jenny) and really watched the other girls playing, and I really think he is ready to start playing more socially.   

He also wore a little wizard costume around for a while, and then changed into a crown and a red shirt thingy that he wore for a while.  I have never seen him purposefully trying on costumes, so that was fun.  He put a crown on my head and handed me a skirt to put on too.  (I wore the crown for a bit, but the skirt *might* fit around my right thigh, so I didn’t do that)  It is odd and exciting to see him trying out playing like that instead of just playing with functional toys (blocks, puzzles) or things with wheels.  He did play with some of the things he usually does, but there was more diversity, and it was really exciting for me.

Zane and I stayed there 3 1/2 hours, if that is an indication of how well it was going.  I probably could have stayed longer, but Zane was getting hungry and starting to show signs that he would be overwhelmed if I stayed too much longer  (the crowd got a lot noisier and more rambunctious during the last 1/2 hour we were there).

I did get one picture, which was probably blurry because I forgot to put on the flash, before the camera batteries died.  I still haven’t charged them, so the picture is stuck on the memory card right now.  I think a part of why I want to go back is to get pictures of him in costumes and playing like that just to remind myself that he actually did it when he is having a bad day.  I know, lame.