This weekend looked like it was going to be pretty dull, but we managed to find a little excitement.
The Park
At one point, Sydney begged me to take her to the park and after failing to convince her that it was cold, we went. Prior to leaving, we bundled her up from head to toe. Then I pushed her down the street to the park in the stroller. When we got there I said, "Ok, hop out and lets play". Sydney didn't make a move. I knelt down beside her and said, "Don't you want to play?" Without moving any part of her body other than her lips, she whispered "Home". "Are you too cold?" I asked. "Yeah" she said, again not moving anything more than her mouth. So we went home. Meghan later informed me that it was in the 40s. We're in for a long winter.
Party Time Palace
Later we decided to go to this place called Party Time Palace which is just up the street from us. It's kind of like Showbiz Pizza without the talking Ape and the pizza. They have a few inflatable things that kids can jump/play in. They also have some token fed cars that rock back and forth as well as video games. I believe they have laser tag for the older kids. Anyway, they have a toddler are and we thought it might be a chance for Sydney to burn off some energy.
During Meghan's prior attempt to take Sydney here, she was too afraid to do anything so we were hoping this time would go better. It did. In fact it was a glowing success. Sydney jumped in the little kid moon jump (a lot). She played on a little side and ran back and forth in and out of a little play house.
Sydney even rode a train with some bigger kids. We gave Sydney her ticket and she cautiously handed it to the attendant who let her go through the gate and get on the train. Meghan went in an put her on it the first time. It's right at about the max height Sydney could climb into if she tried to. Sydney sat patiently in the car by herself, let the attendant fasten her seat belt, and grinned as the train took off and went around the track. When the ride was over she attempted to get out by herself but Meghan ended up helping her. There was some confusing leaving the gate and when another kid let go of the gate it about smacked Sydney in the head. She didn't even notice and seemed disoriented walking among the kids who were a head taller than her. During Sydney's second train ride she actually climbed into the train car herself and let the attendant help her out.
Later, we went to the mall in an attempt to go furniture shopping. In the end we abandoned that goal and just took Sydney to the kids play area. It was a completely mad house with crazy kids everywhere (most of of which were older and far worse behaved). Sydney clearly didn't know how to deal with the chaos. She kept waiting her turn at the slide with kids pushing past her. She tried waiting to go down until one little girl got off the slide. All that little girl wanted to do was lay on it and climb up it. I have no idea where her parents were. With much encouragement we got Sydney to mix it up with the kids and go down the slide a few times but she was pretty timid. It's funny, with the same aged kids 9 months ago, she would have got in their faces and screamed at them. Today, not so much. Meghan tried to explain that Sydney should ask the kids to move, but that lesson didn't seem to sink in.
Today Meghan asked Miss Melissa about Sydney's interaction with the other kids. Apparently she's very social with the group of kids she knows but when she is around a group she doesn't know, she just clams up. Sounds eerily like me (then and now).
Another odd observation was that when Sydney stood there waiting for the kids to move, she would watch them for awhile and then completely zone out. At one point I walked up to her, tapped her on the shoulder, and asked her if she wanted to play. I'm pretty sure she was somewhere else entirely during the moments preceding that conversion.
Toys R Us
Sydney still had birthday money left from Grandma Mulhern and a gift card from Tom & Cindy so Meghan took her to Toys R Us to pick out her own toys. Apparently Sydney was on toy overload and loved it there. In the end, she settled on a set of bunk beds for her dolls (which she's played with a lot since then) and a toy garbage truck (which she has also played with). Apparently it was a toss up between the garbage truck, the fire engine, and the police car. Eventually she went with the green garbage truck.