Back to The Point

I have been meaning to share these pictures since Thursday, when we made a return trip to The Point, that church's indoor play land. It was supposed to be over 90 degrees here, which seemed like a good enough reason to drive a little way to let Harper do her running around in air conditioning. We did not go with a friend this time around; I had my fingers crossed that she might be a little more adventurous than last time.

In fact our last trip to this indoor play land was part of the reason we decided to sign Harper up for her gymnastics class, because she had been so scared of everything.


Well the gymnastics has apparently been making her a little more brave because we were not there long before she actually climbed up the very set of stairs that had terrified her mere weeks ago.

Harper happily climbed up into the tunnels and had fun looking down at me from various perches. It probably helped that there weren't very many people there, so she wasn't intimidated by all those big kids running (climbing) circles around her.

We even packed a little lunch so we could stay and play longer. There is a small area with tables in the next room and Harper felt like a big girl sitting in a regular chair. Unfortunately she was so eager to play she couldn't be persuaded to eat much lunch.

An observant person will notice that Harper is not wearing the same pair of shorts in all these pictures. I guess when you are playing in what looks like a giant hamster play set, you forget to pay attention to the sensation that tells you it is time to go potty.

Oops.

Despite my efforts to get her in the bathroom periodically, Harper still had an accident. These things happen.

After a while, another family of children arrived and made Harper an accessory to their game. They were running around defending some sort of imaginary fort, and the little one, maybe age 4?, kept saying, "Run, she's trying to kill us!" That sounded a little dramatic to me, but whatever. They made a game out of knowing where Harper was and shouting things like, "What is she doing now? Did she come out of the tunnel?" Harper, for her part, was happy to be even marginally included and enjoyed the fact that they ran away if she chased them.

The day ended on a slightly sour note. Harper in her new fit of bravery, climbed way up into a corner of the play structure. And she couldn't get down. The other kids (the oldest was probably 7? 8?) tried to help her, but no luck. I could see her up in the corner and when she started to cry I decided I was going to have to climb up after her.

Fortunately I am still relatively agile, and I didn't run into any tunnels that I couldn't fit through, which was a genuine fear! I helped Harper out of the corner she was stuck in, only to find she had wet her pants again!

So we both climbed down, I changed her into a diaper (the only thing I had left) and we headed home. Harper said three things over and over again on the ride back to our house:

"Sanks for coming to get me Mommy."

"I'm sorry I went potty in my big girl pants."

"That was fun at Point!"