At first your infant can't do anything. Not a single thing. Okay, they can eat, sleep, cry and make glorious messes in their diapers. But that's about it. As they get older they iterate through layers of independence, ending ultimately in taking care of their own parents who have lost their own independence due to age.
Today was one of those independence milestones. My son, out of the blue, said, "I want to go to Chuck E. Cheese!" We've been there before, I think twice. But it's been a good long time and I have no idea how he remembered the place or the name. (Toddler memory is both astounding and confounding.) I was looking for something to do this afternoon since our pool has been closed due to a downed phone line. I said, "what a great idea. Let's all go to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch!" This was met with cries of happiness and an almost uncanny willingness to go to the potty, find and put on shoes by my children.
When we arrived I ordered food and this time, I didn't worry about them wandering off. They stamp parent and children with a hand stamp there and you can't leave without your matching stamped parent. So I let them run off and I calmly got our drinks, selected our usual table and prepared everything for our food to arrive. Then I went to look for them.
All games and rides take one single token. Some came with our meal. I gave my children one each and watched as I made sure they knew how to insert them into the machines. They spent quite some time on a car with a steering wheel that lurched back and forth while they did a dreadful job of picking up the coins and fruit on the screen in front of them.
Our food arrived and I called them over. They ate some and then ran off again to play in the play structure. I checked email and looked up after a few minutes to see if they were okay. I noticed they'd taken their shoes off as required and were still in the tube and slide play area.
In a while they came back and ate some more. I asked them if they wanted more coins. I showed my son how he could put one in his pocket and hold one in his hand. He liked that. They went off and drove Bob the Builder's truck for a while and then came back with two tickets and a printout of some child's picture from another ride.
This went on for a good while: eating, climbing in the play structure, asking for a coin, coming back and telling me something that happened. I checked on them fairly regularly but they were having fun and managing things all by themselves.
We were there for nearly three hours. I lured them out with the promise of a "prize" with their meager collection of tickets. (The prize counter was at the front, near the exit.) It was a lot of fun for them. I liked watching them be independent.
The Big Boy Update: With my son's recent rigidity issues, we have a place he can go to help him become calm. I decided to remove the child protective door knob on the closet in their bedroom. There are clothes in there and a lot of books, but otherwise, it's just a walk-in closet that's carpeted. He can sit on the floor and pull books off the shelf, looking at the pictures. He likes to do this. It is almost always calming. I called it his, "safe place" when I took him there the first time but he immediately renamed it and said, "this is my quiet place. I can be loud out there." We'll see how it works out and if it helps over time.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter likes the word "dinosaur". She repeated for no apparent reason for several days. Now, if you say "dinosaur" to her, she will almost always smile and repeat it back to you.
Fitness Update: I ran ten miles today. After the bonking of last weekend I was worried, so I ate a second dinner before bed and when I woke up at four in the morning, I ate two breakfast bars and drank something to hydrate myself. Before running out the door I drank a Gatorade. I was fine. I'm glad I didn't forget how to run.
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