How To Wear Out A Toddler

Last week, Jalen and I tried a new activity to spend our morning and get out of the house. We went to a place called Events at Sherlake which was full of inflatables like a bounce house, giant slide, obstacle course, and a toddler play area. If you know me, you might be aware of my love of obstacle courses, giant slides, and bounce houses, so I thought this was a great idea. Add to that Jalen's excitement for jumping on the bed and going down slides, and I knew this would be a hit. (on the left is the slide, right is the obstacle course)

When we pulled up to the building (which was difficult to find among all the warehouse-type buildings in an industrial area), I was disappointed to see a sign on the front advertising open play times Tues & Wed, and this was Thursday. But, false alarm, they were open, and we were two of only seven visitors there (counting parents). We paid and got our instructions, and walked down the hall to the double doors separating us from gravity-defying bouncy fun and as I held the door open for Jalen to walk through......Jalen?....

Ok, so it was kinda dark and pretty loud with all the blowers keeping everything inflated. I guess a 14-month-old might not be drawn to that type of environment. So I picked him up and we crossed the threshold as he clung to me for dear life. We first went all the way to the back to warm up on the toddler play area. Crawling through the opening under the protective net was a little difficult, but I was secretly glad he had a hold of me so I could have an excuse to play too!

After that, we watched some older kids play and go down the big slide, then we sat on the floor and played with another baby for a while and had a snack. About an hour into it, Jalen really got warmed up to the idea and we went back into the toddler play area. He totally had it figured out now! The fire truck in the back is a slide that he went down over and over (and over and over and over and over). He loved to watch the other kids race around him, and every time he went past the dog by the fire truck, he stopped to grab it's tongue. :)




THEN... we went down the BIG SLIDE! I started by carrying Jalen up the steps (geez, there were a lot of them!) and sitting him on my lap when we went down. Then he climbed the steps all by himself, and went down the giant slide right beside me. I couldn't see his face, but he was making a sound like he was really scared, but then he hopped right up and went straight for the stairs again! And so we went down that slide over and over and over! We were there for two hours, so by the time I was putting his shoes back on and buckling him in his carseat, there was no protesting and two minutes down the road he was passed out. I think we will definitely have to do that again!

Yogurt, Birthday, and the Park - what?

Remember the video of the applesauce? Yeah, didn't go so well with yogurt.

We have been getting full use out of all the new Christmas and birthday toys this winter as it seems like we have been couped up FOREVER! We can't wait to get outside this spring. Jalen is getting so big and independent, we are going to have fun with some new experiences this year.


"Daddy" had a birthday on Monday, and Jalen was excited to bring him his gift and help him read his card. (He got a new watch that Jalen and I went allllll the way to Sevierville to shop for in the cold and then J got to try some Olive Garden).

We did have one glorious weekend recently that was warm and sunny and allowed us to go to the park. Jalen loves to swing, slide, climb the steps, and watch the big kids play.

Mattress Slide

One day I decided to flip our mattress, but first we pretended it was a slide. As you can see Jalen loved it, and he wished "Dada" was there.

Can You Say Big Boy?

Here's a video showing Jalen feeding himself applesauce with a spoon. We've been working with the spoon, but this was the first time I let him go at it with no guidance. Mama's so proud!