Discover The Dinosaurs

E is loving Dinosaurs lately so we were excited to find that 'Discover the Dinosaurs' is in town at the Convention Center this weekend.  E zoomed around the exhibits using his walker and named each of the big animated Dinos for us.  I had to read the signs, but he knew them all by name.  He did not get this from me, obviously.  I still can't pronounce most of them.  :)  I wish I had pictures of him next to the Dinos but he decided it was best to keep his distance.  He yelled, 'Dinosaur going to eat you' and ran many times.   I think we may need to cut back on the Netflix Dinosaur movies.

It was crowded and full of Toddlers so I was a little nervous, but the walker was just enough to draw attention to E, so he didn't get knocked over.  Once we finished with the exhibits we ventured into the play area.  E immediately noticed the huge bouncy house/slide/climbing complex at the end.  They were blaring music and the line to enter it stretched almost the length of the room.  We tried some of the lower key activities such as playing in Dino Land, coloring, watching a Dino movie, etc.  He lasted all of 10 seconds at each station.  I thought we found a winner at the Digging for Dino's station.  E loved this and played there for a while.

Checking out the little Dinosaurs in Dino Land

Digging for bones

Look what I found

The look I received when I asked him to smile.  Haha..he said 'I digging, MOM'.  His teen years are going to be fun.

Eventually I had to remove him when it got crowded and after repeatedly asking the larger and older kids to stop reaching over/under E and stop nudging him over.  I realize that the parents of these children probably didn't even notice and they have no idea that if 'Little Billy' slips and falls on E or knocks him down while crowding into his personal space, this could easily result in a broken leg, arm, wrist, etc.  I certainly am aware of this scenario and it plays through my head each time I see 'Little Billy' take a step closer.  Instead of looking like a crazy lady and just announcing that everyone needs to step away from my child, I hover and try to anticipate 'Little Billys' next move.  Today, I nearly chose the crazy lady route.  It does get irritating when the parents just sit there and do nothing.  Anyway, it got out of hand so we had to move on.

We were directly across from bouncy heaven at this point and as much as we had tried to steer him away from the attraction, he darted over to the exit (no lines...smart kid) and tried to sneak under the rope.    We had to drag him back and explain that he could not go into Bouncy Heaven.  The look on his face and the tears that followed broke my heart.  We chose to leave the event, with both Ethan and I in tears.  E was crying because he really wanted to play with all of the other smiling screaming kids who were bouncing, dancing, sliding.  I was crying out of frustration/anger/sadness because this is first time he REALLY REALLY wanted to do something and we had to say No for safety reasons.   I have said No before to certain activities but E is usually easily satisfied with another activity....not today.  We always focus on the fun activities that he CAN do, and that typically works well for all of us.  This just wasn't good enough today, for either of us.  I wanted him to experience Bouncy Heaven just like all of the other hundred kids waiting in anticipation or having so much fun in there.  :(

So, we both had our tantrums and now I'm trying to find a safe alternative or better yet a Bouncy Heaven that is not so crowded where we can keep our distance from others and let him bounce away.  Feel free to comment with ideas, especially if you live locally and know of a place we can go!!!!