Indoor Playground

It was a 2nd birthday party for one of our friends' kids today; several people who Emily works with all had kids within a year of Jack's birthday (one within 10 days). So they rented out "Monkey Bizness," a huge warehouse south of Denver that was turned into an indoor playground / jungle gym, filled with inflatable rooms to jump around in, mammoth slides to ride, and ample room to run, crawl, and bounce around in. You know it's a kid's birthday party when it starts at 9:30 a.m., so as not to interfere with afternoon naps. Jack got some shuteye in in the car on the way down, while Emily and I fretted about our separation-anxiety afflicted dog somehow leaping the 7-foot fence around the back yard as we were leaving, for the second straight day.

The day began with orientation in the outer room, where the two staffers had all the kids circle around while they explained rules that 80 percent of the kids wouldn't be able to comprehend anyway. "Go down the slides feet first." "Don't take off your socks." (Clearly, they didn't know Jack.) "No climbing up the rock wall - that's for older kids." I'm not sure I could have managed that one myself, so they evidently meant not only older but also remarkably athletic kids.

Once we were in the playroom it was kind of like the play area at the mall all over again. Kids running around yelling while Jack, for the first few moments anyway, gazed around in a kind of awe at the huge, colorful structures. I saw a kid his age (and Mom) crawling into this big inflatable number on the right, and there were rubber balls in there, so Jack and I crawled on in, too. He liked the bouncy aspect of it, liked picking a ball up in both hands, liked "throwing" it (in the sense that he picked it up and kind of waved his arms in the air, while the ball cruised off in some random direction, occasionally forward). Then Emily joined us and there was a lot of bouncing around, big smiles from Jack, trips down the slide, and an incident in which Jack took a ball away from another baby, resulting in some embarrassment and tears (not, of course, from Jack himself, who seemed uncertain what all the fuss was about).

After an exhausting 90 minutes of this, it was off to another room for pizza, cupcakes, and Jack's primary fascination, a blue balloon. Somebody had to say "These kids will nap well this afternoon!" - because of course, Jack was so wired when we got home, either from the activity or perhaps the sugar in the cupcake, that he didn't sleep until an hour and a half past his normal naptime. Fortunately our Houdini-esque dog had not only again jumped the fence but, apparently, jumped back into the yard, at least according to the note pinned to our back fence. "I don't think he likes being left alone," it said. Yeah, we're getting that.

In any case, being at Turner's - who I remember as a baby - 2nd birthday party was both fun and scary, particularly considering we had actually forgotten Jack's 14-month birthday until early the next day. It was scary not because they grow up so fast, I don't think, but rather because each stage comes and goes and you're dealing with the next one before you can even fully appreciate the previous one. Jack's not walking yet, but soon he will be, and then these days of him crawling over to us or walking tentatively while holding my finger tightly in his pudgy little fist will be gone. Just pictures, memories, diaries, and blogs. I hope it's enough.