Saturday, January 16, 2010

Easy entertainment

While we were in North Carolina, we ventured bravely into the mall there several times. I feel the need to mention that I'd rather do almost anything than go to a mall. I think the invention of online shopping has saved not only my sanity, but the health and general well being of many of the folks I'd be forced to interact with.

Sad to say, but the older I get, the less I enjoy being in large crowds of people. Of course, having two kids than can, when motivated, run faster than the speed of sound contributes greatly to this. I didn't understand the danger of strange people/strange places when I was five so I'm not surprised they don't understand either. But the world is a lot less safe these days than it was back then, which is I'm sure the exact way my parents felt at this point.

At any rate, my uptight, overprotective self took the kids to the mall a couple of times anyway. We all survived. (golf clap, please) At said mall, T sees this bungee jump type attraction. He begs and begs to do it. R and I are not sure if this is such a great idea, but in all honesty, it's an activity that overall plays right into T's sensory needs. We eventually decide to let him try. He gets hooked up to a harness that is attached to bungee cords. He's supposed to jump on the trampoline and the bungee cords will allow him to jump higher and higher.

Our little control freak (I wonder where he gets THAT) got off to a bit of a shaky start, but the jumping and sensory input of it all had him bouncing with delight (sorry, couldn't resist) in no time. Seeing her big brother having the time of his life made S want to do it too. So we made sure she hit the minimum weight and let her try. Parents have to stay outside the jump area, and S took off her shoes and socks and climbed onto the trampoline thing really easily. But when the guy went to hook up the harness and she realized it wasn't the equivalent of a open air bouncy castle, she wanted none of it. Fortunately for us, the guy running it was a good sport and gave us back our money.

T talked non stop about it for days. When the kids and I went to the mall in this area, that was he first thing he looked for, but this mall doesn't have it. I'm not sure if I'm glad or disappointed about that yet.

But today, we found a car wash off base because the ones on base are still closed. R's car has been filthy ever since our trip back from Oklahoma but the temperature didn't get above freezing for about 10 - 12 days and all the car washes were shut down. We were just looking for a spray off one, but happened upon a qwik lube/detail/car wash that ended up being one of the ones that you drive through. And there we were as the car slowly went through the auto wash process and the kids were laughing and squealing in the back like we hadn't heard in weeks. I would have never thought in a million years that going through a car wash would be the most fun we'd have as a family but there ya go. I guess you just never know, do you?

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