Playground observations

On Friday I decided to take all of the kids, pick up my mother, and all head out shopping. We have a new upscale shopping center in town that we all were interested in, so we figured that would be as good a time as any to check it out. We had heard rumors that there was going to be a Macy's built there, but we were unable to find it if it was there. So, after a disappointing run-through, we headed over to one of the larger malls.

We ate lunch there and then headed down to the children's play area. When we first arrived Jacob took right off to where the other kids were playing, Joshua went to an area that was pretty much away from crowds, Cassidy stood there begging me to take off her socks and not just her shoes, and Elena was content to hang out in the stroller taking it all in.

I made sure to take a seat that made it easy to watch all four of them without much trouble. There were a few kids in the area that were above the height limit and one in particular was a bit of a bully, pushing the smaller kids out of her way. Lucky for us, her parents decided to take off soon after we arrived.

Jacob made a new little friend while he was there. The little boy was wearing an Incredibles T-shirt, so it automatically caught his eye. The little boy even somewhat resembled the character, Dash, who is his favorite character in the movie. They got along great! LOL

Cassidy was hesitant for a long time and I was baffled as to why until I saw her slip because of the socks she was wearing. I guess I forgot about that happening the last time we were there, but she didn't! Once they were removed she took off. She always has been one to kind of watch the other kids and take everything in before actually doing anything, so she sat for a long time. Other kids came up to play with her and she just sat and stared them down. LOL Eventually I told Jacob to go and get her hand and ask her if she wanted to play. He did, and from that point on she seemed ok.

Elena in the meantime decided she was done watching and was ready to practice her new crawling skills and go exploring. She had a ball crawling to the dolphins that were on the floor. She'd get excited and start bouncing and dancing. It was pretty cute.

Joshua was the one I watched the most. At first, he was pretty much where there were no other kids. He was having a grand time on his own. After a little bit, I sort of encouraged him to go to where some of the other kids were playing. He did, and he appeared to have a good time. Some of the other kids were drawn to him and were copying him, and he did notice. However, he didn't really initiate anything. He soon went to a different section and some of the kids followed him over. He did sort of get upset at one little boy who was wanting to play with a wheel Joshua was spinning. Josh moved the little boy's hand off and told him "No, it's Joshua's turn", so I explained to Josh he needed to share. I told him one more time of spinning it and then it would be the other boy's turn, and there were no more problems after that.

I do see some improvements. Before, if other children had followed him, he probably would have had a cow. Firday, he was fine with them following him around and giggled a bit about it. He didn't converse with any of them, but he did acknowledge them.