Adventures in a plastic playland

Recently my son attended a birthday party at chic-fil-a. He quickly became completely fixated with the playland. He was a man on a mission - he refused chicken nuggets and cake all to be in the playland. Leaving resulted in the most major tantrum - complete with hitting and biting.

I guess he needs some desensitization therapy. Today we were invited to meet up with my friend Erica and her daughter Eileen (aged 3 and in LOVE with Daniel) at McDonalds. Perfect! Post-work snack for me and a playland desensitization therapy!

Let me set the scene.

90 degrees, high humidity. The sun directly over head, heating up the playland. My kid-already dirty and sweaty from a day full of play, ready to tackle this adventure. Mom-less dirty but also sweaty in a denim skirt and sandals.

The kids are playing nicely and Daniel is crawling up the slide a foot or so and then sliding down on his own. Eileen takes off for the enclosed spiral staircase to the top - Daniel follows. I allow him to go, thinking he will chicken out. Suddenly - Daniel takes off at full speed, my sandal falls off, and I'm losing ground! He gains the edge, gets to the top and goes crazy with glee. He is pounding the Plexiglas and smooshing his face on it. I am hunched over trying to maneuver over some plastic bench at the top. Then it hits me 1) I smell poop, and 2) there is no way in HELL I'm going down that scary twisty slide with a 15 month old with OI on my lap. I wouldn't even do it by myself! I hate twisty slides! But I'm trapped like a gerbil in this plastic fiasco, with the smell of poop gagging me - and since my only company in was 3 and under, I had to be the adult, and retrieve my child. Thank god he found going down the steps as fun as going up. We made it down without a fight. Because he was so hot, I was also able to lure him out of the playland with his sippy cup of ice water without a battle.

For the record, I think this brings the score for the week to baby 6, mommy 1 (but mine was a hard fought battle!).