Daddy worked all weekend (gawd, I can't wait until he is done working at that awful place!) so it was jut me and the boy. Saturday morning we had a play date. A friend of Mommy's and her 2 boys came over for a few hours. The boys had a BLAST and it was super fun for me to A) not have to be the one playing with him all day long and B) see him have so much fun with his friends and C) visit with my friend.
They left shortly after lunch (for naptime, natch) and my son cried for 20 minutes.
"I need my friends!"
"Mommy, I want my friends to come back!"
"Ma-a-a-me-e-e-ee! I neeeeed them!"
It was sad. It was pitiful. I felt terrible, actually. I realized how much this boy NEEDS to play with other kids. Sure, he plays with other children at the sitter. But, we're down to only 3 days there per week now, which means 4 days are spent with adults only. As much as I LOVE winter, and I do love love love it, it seems that we spend all of our time holed up (and alone) in the house. It's been really cold too, too cold to play outside on most days. And that's sad too because we all really dig playing in the snow. Plus...going places for me typically means buying stuff and I've really been trying to adjust to living on a budget. It's really really hard, so I would rather just not go anywhere. Not be tempted, which turns out to actually mean...I'm punishing my child for my own lack of control. Urgh.
So, Sunday morning I decided we needed to get out. We headed to the mall. I do think the play area at the mall is disgusting. A breeding ground for germs and gross kids I wouldn't really choose for him to play with while their parents yap-yap-yap on their cell phones. While their 10+ year old children run rampant in a baby/toddler/preschool play area. The type of parents who consider this area their "free babysitter". I hate it.
Anyway, so we headed into the mall. He spotted the "Build A Bear" store immediately. He wanted to go in and see if they had any "Dinosaur Bones" (not sure why, but he was convinced he would find dinosaur bones at the mall). He spotted a Panda Bear who he thought looked like "Little Pim", from his Mandarin Chinese DVDs. I asked if he wanted to watch them put stuffing in his belly and pick out an outfit for him. He sure did. So, that was fun. 20 minutes and $26 later, we had a bear named "Pim" and a whacky shirt and hat for him.
After adopting Pim, he told me he was hungry for lunch. We headed to the food court where he decided he wanted noodles. I spotted Nori Japanese. I ordered noodles and breaded chicken (like sweet n sour chicken), we split it. It was decent, and he loved it. The people sitting next to us couldn't get over his vocabulary and his noodle slurping abilities. We had one noodle that was, no joke, at least 18 inches long. I held it out while he slurped it up. The people just giggled.
We headed over to the ride on's after lunch. The ones that are NOT near the germy play area. The ride on's are germy, but they just don't seem as disgusting. He rode the dump truck 7 times. Finally, I told him I didn't have any more money and asked if he wanted to see if we could find some dinosaur bones.
We looked for dinosaur bones but didn't find any and headed out the door.
He was getting snoozy on the car ride home, so I told him he could watch 10 minutes of Scooby and then it was nap time. I got the typical throw yourself on the floor, hide your face and whimper and say "I don't want to take a nap. It's not nap time". Sorry, little man, it IS nap time. So, we headed up read a couple books, I hugged & kissed him, plopped him in his crib, covered him up, closed the door and left.
I started my typical naptime ritual of sitting on the couch with my laptop, catching up on all the Facebook happenings. I hear him CRYING! SOBBING!
I rarely go back in his room after I close the door for naps or night time, but this time it sounded different. I opened the door to find him sitting in bed, tears streaming down his face, holding Pim. Pim's hat had fallen off. He was devistated. He couldn't put it back on.
It's one of those hats that just has little elastic loops that fit around the stuffed animals ears. I put Pim's hat back on, layed his head on the boy's pillow, covered them both up, patted the boys head only to see that he was already sound asleep. Ahhh.
After his nap, we headed to the grocery store. I never, ever, ever, take him to the grocery store with me. But, I thought I would rather go when it was light out than deal with going after daddy gets home from work. So, he refused to sit in the cart, which I figured would happen sooner or later. He wanted to push. He loves to "help", so I put him to work. I told him which things to get and how many, and he got them and put them in the cart. More like threw them into the cart, but it's hard when you're only 37 1/2 inches tall. He was a great helper...and it wasn't as miserable of a experience as I anticipated.
Fun times, people, fun times.
3 comments:
I sure wish we were still across the street from each other! M's at "school" everyday but the weekends are lonely and we spend way too much time with just us. Our friends with kids are so busy hauling them to every class under the sun on the weekends that playdates are rare. We actully considered joining Gymboree (gasp!) just for something to do on the weekends other then letting her run through the aisles of Target while we buy stuff we don't need.
This was the first play date we have had at our house in a very long time, and the first one he's had period in about 5 months! At least you have Mark there with you! Imagine being the only one most of the time...playing is fun, but it sure gets boring and lonely. It's sad that my best friend is a little boy who isn't even 3 yet. And it's even sadder that his best friend is a Freak of a mom. At least you have Gymboree to even consider. We don't even have that. I want to take him to the TMA but their art class thingy is smack dab in the middle of his nap time and I'm not going to fuck with that until I have no choice. I've tried to join mom groups around town but they are all for stupid ass SAHMs and meet at 10am on Tuesdays or some crap!
Yes, I do have Mark to pawn her off on which I do way too much.
One of the great things that everyone tells you about Shaker is all the cheap and free activities for toddlers/preschoolers. What they don't tell you is that it is all during the g-damn weekday! There are awesome free classes at the library and community center (dance, art, tumbling, swimming!) and every last one is either at 10 or 2 during the week. I complain all the time. But we DO have the chains (Gymboree, Little Gym, Kindermusic, etc). But none of the nearby malls have play areas! For that we have to go all the way to Strongsville. Like I said, we spend way too many weekend mornings at the Target with the elevator.
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