P365 – Day 245 – a day with the boy (2/09/2011)

Juniordwarf’s school had a student-free day and it was my turn to have a day off to spend with him.

When he found out he’d be having the day with me, Juniordwarf planned out the ‘special acitivities’ that we’d be doing – making a Father’s Day card for Slabs and drawing a picture of a dragon for me.

Last week I saw a poster for the annual Big Playgroup, to be held at our local library today, so I asked Juniordwarf if he wanted to go.

He was very excited about going, and added that to his list of special activities.

A few weeks ago, the mum of one of his school friends (who I will call J) asked if Juniordwarf would like to go to their place to play with J, She said Juniordwarf was always concerned about J when he was sad at school and that he was a really good friend to J.

We’ve tried to organise this for several weeks, but something’s always come up. I thought today might be a good chance to do it, because we didn’t have any thing to do after Big Playgroup, so we tentatively agreed on the day. I said I’d call J’s mother after Playgroup and let her know how we were going.

We walked in to the library and it was packed with kids. Juniordwarf was a bit overwhelmed at first, even though I’d warned him that there would be lots of kids there and it would be noisy. He’s used to a quiet place with only one or two people there. I felt sorry for anyone who didn’t know it was on and went to the library to browse some books.

He wandered round a bit, but wasn’t interested in doing any of the activities. That is, until he saw the play dough. He made a bee-line for that, and did his usual thing of making a cake for me. But things have progressed – now he puts the cake in the oven and cooks it, before he gets it out (with an oven glove), lets it cool, ‘icings’ it and then gives it to me.

I asked him if he wanted to do some of the craft activities, which were set up in a side room, but he got quite upset and didn’t want to go in there, so I didn’t push him.

The Grade 6 kids from one of the local schools were there helping out.  A couple of them were doing face painting, and Juniordwarf freaked them out a bit when he asked for a butterfly. He wanted one on each side of his face, but I convinced him a spider tattoo was a better option.

The dental service people were there, so I encouraged him to go and say hello to the dentist and practise his brushing on the giant teeth.

There were some cool strap-on cars that Juniordwarf had a great time with. He ‘drove’ all over the library, going to various shops, getting out of the car, doing the shopping and then driving off to the next shop.

He got a balloon, and spent a lot of time letting it go and watching it float up to the ceiling (which I then had to get down for him, so he could let it go again . . .).

We went outside to the sausage sizzle, and after that he finally wanted to do a crafty activity, which was to build a little wooden car. We built it together and then he decorated it.

The last thing we did was to go into the craft room and make a card for Slabs. But I can’t say anything about that . . .  shhh!

Juniordwarf didn’t want to leave, but it was pack-up time and I asked if he wanted to go to J’s house. He was still keen, so I called J’s mother and she said to come over, so off we went.

We had a couple of things to do on the way in and said we’d be there about 1.30. When we got there, J’s mum said that J had been so excited that Juniordwarf was coming that she’d had to set the timer for him.

The boys had a great time playing and (wouldn’t you know it) when it was time to leave, Juniordwarf didn’t want to go. But I told him we could come back another day and he reluctantly cooperated.

I told him we could go out for ice cream before we went home, so we did that too. He had ‘white ice cream’, which he loved. 

He was also very excited about being allowed to put the money in the parking voucher machine, and wanted to put more money in when we were leaving.

Um, no, I don’t think so! It took a lot to convince him that this was completely unnecessary. 

Despite all his little refusals during the day, it was one of the best Mum and Son days we’ve had for ages.