Eagle's Nest

This morning the kids and I were supposed to meet a friend at the Y who has a son almost the same age as Samuel. I was going to workout, then go swimming with Sam while Matthew was in the child care center. However, Matthew came down with a fever last night and still had one this morning, so we had to change our plans. I think Matthew's pooing issues and the fever are related, so hopefully everything will get back to normal soon. Poor kid. He's not quite as smiley as he normally is and is not quite as active. So he got his first little bug. He may have picked it up at the Y last Friday as I think that's when his pooing issues started. That was the first time he was in a child care center, and his young immune system hasn't been exposed to a lot.

Anyway, since it was pretty warm and possibly going to rain, I didn't want to take the kids on walk, so we went to the Eagle's Nest in New Brighton which is an indoor playground. Wow. Apparently a lot of moms also thought that was a good idea for their little ones because the place was packed. The Eagle's Nest has a toddler area for kids under 3, and another area for kids up to age 11. The toddler area has a few different play structures as well as a ball pit and it's a fairly large space. However this morning it felt very small as there were anywhere from 25-30 kids running around in the toddler area and many moms, a few grandparents, and one very bored-looking dad.

We arrived around 10ish and Sam had a great time running, climbing, throwing balls, etc. By 10:15 I was ready to go, but it was downpouring at that time. The screaming, squealing and just noise associated with a lot of kids was intense. And the hovering parents were kind of funny too. Some parents sit on the benches along the side of the play area and watch their kids, while others are always within 1-2 feet of their children. I fall within the former category.When I took Sam to the Eagle's Nest over the winter there was a small girl there with 6 adults watching and hovering around her. I assumed it was her parents, grandparents and possibly an aunt and uncle. Wherever she was, there were 6 adults in the near vicinity taking pictures and smiling in delight at their little angel's playing accomplishments.

Anyway, today it was crowded not so much with 6 adults per child, but just a ton of kids. At one point Sam was trying to get to the ball pit which was surrounded by kids and caregivers. He tried to get between two other kids, accidentally knocked one down, and the child promptly got up and hit Sam. He didn't notice, and continued on his way to the ball pit. I held Matthew the entire time and he seemed to be doing ok, but I think the noise was getting to him too. He squirmed and cried a little, then fell asleep. To be able to sleep in the midst of such chaos is quite an amazing accomplishment. By a little after 11 the rain had let up enough that I felt like I wouldn't be a bad parent if we left and I walked the kids to the car in a little rain. So we survived a morning of chaos at the Eagle's Nest and Sam made it out without an injury.