Underwhelmed.

With 200 consecutive days at 100 degrees and no rain, it’s getting harder to be consistently creative regarding not only keeping Connor entertained, but also physically active.  So far Nita and Kara have taken him to five different jumpy castle places, a children’s gymnastics studio, puppet shows, story times at libraries and bookstores, train rides at the mall, train rides at a park, swimming, and the indoor zoo.  What?! Didn’t know we had an indoor zoo in Austin (Shhhh, *whispering* it’s just PetSmart and Petco, but don’t tell Connor he loves it).  So this morning Connor woke up and played trains with Josie.  Watched a little sesame street and then had some breakfast. After breakfast as soon as Kara showed up he very matter-of-factly said, “Where are we going today?”

Connor has over 100 trains and cars, three different types of tracks, and all kinds of bridges and tunnels.  He’s got a mountain of stuffed animals.  He has about 300 books, blocks (wooden and foam), tools, cars, balls, two sets of golf clubs (one plastic one real), two basketball goals (one nerf one outdoor), and a baseball swing trainer.  He has a hockey stick and puck, sorting and counting games, puzzles, remote control vehicles, and four semi-trucks. He’s got trikes, baseball gloves, swings, farming tools, and of course all my stuff that he can get his hands on when mommy’s not looking.  He has four different sized dump trucks for inside and outside play, a water table, slip and slide, sandbox, fishing game, musical instruments, play dough, markers and crayons, a bunch of Disney movies, Baby Einstein videos, and all kinds of developmental games.  I’m not trying to be show-y here, I’m just saying the little brother has options.

Josie, on the other hand, is living the dream.  Everywhere she turns is something to grab, play with, put in her mouth, and see if Connor will come running to take it away or not.  Her favorite thing of late is to pull herself up on Connor’s train table and start taking apart the tracks. I used to think she was upset when he took things out of her hand, but now I think she just loves his attention.  I can see her little mind working and am wondering not “if” but “when” she’ll learn to fully manipulate all of us.  Hear that Josephine?  I’m watching you kid!

So when Connor was informed that he’d be staying in all day he looked a little, well, underwhelmed.  It was like he was disappointed that we’d run out of ideas, like we had “stopped trying.”  I’m remembering times when my instructions for the day were four words: go outside and play.  That was it.  The rest was solely up to me.  I never grew up with a pool and we certainly didn’t belong to a club.  So the once a month I got to go to the city pool at garrison and was given 25 cents for an ice cream sandwich (oh yeah, right out of the machine in the locker room) seemed like a treat not a right.  It’s making me think about entitlement a little bit and how I’m going to guard against his constant expectation of the world owing him entertainment.  Okay before all of you freak out, I know.  He’s only 2 ½ and I’m not going to send him to a labor camp.  His job right now is to learn and play, I get it.  I’m just thinking out loud I guess.  Back to the public pool, remember there was always some dumb kid who’d get their arm stuck trying to steal an extra ice cream.  That was always pretty entertaining.  Good times.

So we decided to get Connor a play scape.  Swings, rings, slide, rock wall, fort, and a little observation deck with captains wheel and binoculars.  He’s been ready for a while, I was just looking for a deal.  Plus I needed to level a part of the yard, get the pea gravel, the whole thing.  He loves it.  We had it delivered while he, Nita, Nita’s brother, and Josie went to a bouncy castle place (imagine that, another field trip).  Another funny thing is while loading up in the car, Connor noticed two toys that Nita purchased, but hadn’t decided on keeping (yet).  They were Thomas train Legos and of course he went nuts over them and wanted to open and play with them immediately. 

But here’s the thing, I finally figured out how women shop.  I know, I’m 42 and have been married for 7 ½ years and I’m just now getting this.  Apparently women buy way more than they ever intend to keep.  They store it in their office, closet, or car and decide later whether to return them or not.  What is up with that?  No wonder everything is so expensive, they have to mitigate women’s shopping habits with the margins.  Come on ladies, buy it only if you’re going to keep it.  And it should look the same at the store as it does in your house.  Nita sometimes likes to see what things look like at home, I guess home is different than the store lighting. 

Connor loved watching the bobcat level the yard, even took a test drive (which he liked for a while, then it got a little scary). He asked Kara, “why are they taking apart my play scape?”  Once he was told they were going to level the ground, he turned to the Chapa brothers and said, “You need a front loader and a bulldozer.”  My boy.  He also had to test out the pea gravel.  But we’re very pleased with the outcome and now Josie and Connor can swing side by side, I got them some of those bucket swings that you find in parks.  So the next day, “Connor, what do you want to do today.”  “Uuuhhhh, go to Sea World!”  Dude! Consider me underwhelmed.