Rainy Weekend

I hate rainy weekends.  I used to not mind them - it meant that I could cuddle on the couch and watch a movie or read a book.  Unfortunately when you have a spazz of a toddler to entertain there is no quiet weekend to be had.  A rainy weekend means I have to come up with other ways to entertain the munchkin and distract him from his normal "I go outside?!" exclamation.

We've done the aquarium and I still plan on taking him to the Children's Museum (still need to get our membership - and figure out where the heck it is) but this past weekend I figured we would try something else.

Since he LOVES to bounce I decided that we would try Monkey Joe's.  We hadn't been there before and I wasn't quite sure where it was so I plugged it into my phone and off we went.

We had our first meltdown when they put the wristband on him.  Apparently he is not a fan of having something on his wrist.  I tried to distract him from it by pushing it up under his sleeve, which worked for the most part.  I took off his shoes, put on my socks (so I could join him in the bouncer), stowed our stuff and went to find a good one to start with.  Luckily they have a bouncer that is for ages 3 and under only.  I climbed in there with him and sat around the edge.  At first he didn't seem like he was sure what he should do. He clung to me a bit and just watched some of the other kids.  After a minute or two he gained some confidence and took a few steps away.

A few minutes later he was having a blast.  He was laughing and saying "I bounce!" while he hopped up and down.  He'd come running back over to me every so often, to make sure I was still there I guess, and then he would be off again.

Every once in a while  bigger kid would come in there, but the "referees" were good at making sure only little kids played in that particular bouncer.

After a while I figured we should check out some of the other bouncers.  We found this one that has a couple short climbing walls that lead to a slide on the far end.  I helped him climb the first wall and he slid down into the space between the two walls.

I was standing there talking to him when one of the referees told me I could go in there with him. (Since he's under 4 I am able to be in there to assist him).  I hopped in and helped him climb the next section.  Then I helped him climb the last wall and he went down the slide.  I quickly slid down after him and hopped off so I could help him get down (it was a little too high for him to climb down) and he was laughing.  As soon as his little feet hit the ground he went running back around to the entrance and started climbing back up.  We did this at least four or five times, laughing the entire time.  At that point there were a bunch of bigger kids who were climbing in and jumping around and Andrew started too look a little apprehensive.  I decided we would go back to the first bouncer for a little while.

I started to worry that he was going to pitch an absolute fit when I made him leave since he was having so much fun. I wasn't really in the mood for a public meltdown, so I was (very) pleasantly surprised when he bounced over to me and exclaimed "No more bounce!".  When I asked if he was done bouncing he said "All done!" and held up his arms for me to pick him up and get him out of there.

We spent a little more than an hour there and to me it was an extremely successful trip.  He had fun and worked off some energy, so for me it was a win-win.

So I guess I can add Monkey Joe's to our list of things to do on some of our rainy weekends.  I just wish it was a little bit closer to home.  But, if it makes him happy and lets him have fun I guess it's worth the 15 minute drive.  Anything for my little munchkin.