Bouncy House
Greetings to everyone.
Xavier attended a birthday party for a friend he knows through his MOPS group. A local bouncy house served as the venue for the fun. The Pizza Hut across the parking lot served as the catered meal after the fun.
It took Xavier some time to grow used to all the bouncy contraptions available. He did not want to go on the trampolines because they were (in his words) "scary."
It took Dad getting involved and crawling into the air-inflated train slides to get Xavier to stop shying away from the smaller slides. Once he got a taste of the slides, though, it was game on! Up the front of the train, down the slide in the back. Through the "maze" in the next car. Up the ramp then down the slide into another maze, then out the caboose. Once out, it was race around and repeat, laughing all the time.
After a time, I did get him to go on the trampolines. They no longer seemed scary. Once on them, Xavier bounced, climbed and slid and had a blast.
By this time, Xavier had found a friend to run with, another boy about his size. The two discovered the giant shark. Once they identified the climbing ramp, up they went. They did the shark slide several times.
Then I introduced Xavier to the big slide. I asked him, "Do you think this is scary?"
"No!" he replied and squirmed to get out of my arms.
Over the ramps, down some small slides, then up, up, up, a high incline to the big slide. He climbed like an experienced monkey. This slide became his favorite. Too bad we discovered it so late. Lunch time called, and he only had two runs at the slide. He so wanted to go back and do it again (and again, and again…)
We found our shoes and socks, put them on and walked across the parking lot. Their, pizza, drinks and party favors awaited. Xavier ate pizza and pasta. Looking at me he told me "I like the white pasta." There were two choices, one with a white sauce and one with marinara. I did a double take at the phrase "white pasta". Where did he learn that?
In all the eating, playing with party favors and watching the opening of gifts, Xavier never forgot about the big slide. It's all I heard about from the time we left Pizza Hut and drove home. He wanted to go back.