Soft play brings out the best and worst

It was a toss up today as to whether we went to a wildlife park or stayed nearer home and went to Rugrats & Halfpints soft play.  Given the weather was a tad cold and potentially rainy, soft play won out.  As it was half term and a bank holiday I wanted to get there before it got too busy so 10.30 and we were there, socks on, shoes off and ready to play.

N’s always funny at soft play.  He likes to wander round the nooks and crannies, watch the older children, push the cafe chairs around…oh and eventually venture into the actual softplay areas.  It’s like he cases the joint for what’s going on, before deciding what takes his fancy.  I think he’s also quite wary of the unpredictability of other children.

What N thought today:

Trampoline – not sure, I couldn’t stand up on it, and didn’t get the sitting down thing

Ball pit – quite liked it today as not too many other people playing in it.  And I’m not scared of the sound of the ball in the air machine any more.

Wavy double slide – this one’s ok as mum can slide down next to me, although I prefer turning and sliding feet first on my side to sitting up!

Tunnel on the way to slide – great, although didn’t like the silly steps I had to go up to get to it.

Trike – cool, but couldn’t reach the floor so mummy had to push me.  And the steering lark, pah, can’t be fussed with that.

Baby sensory area – like the fish in the coloured tube, and the Old MacDonald farm on the wall with the noises was ok for a bit.  I also enjoyed putting the wooden balls in the hole and watching them run down the zig zag slidy bits.

Bumping into people we know: that nice lady that mummy knows said hi, but I was too busy wandering off, and couldn’t be bothered looking at nice K I’ve played with in the past.  And mummy thought there was a boy from nursery on the trampoline, but I played the innocent.  They didn’t notice us anyway.

I decided we’d stay for lunch as he was getting impatient at 11.30 having not had a snack earlier.  One big round of Dairylea sandwiches (4 eaten, obviously back to normal and feeling well again) and a banana (‘nana’ is his first food word) and a happy little boy recharged for a bit of a run round before heading home.

One thing that’s a shame about soft play is that you can’t really take photos of your little ones for security reasons.  Disappointing as there’s always great colourful shots you could get.  Today it was really too busy, so no sneaky shots.  Think there’s going to be a lot of soft play this week unless the weather improves.

Luckily, however much he enjoys it, so far we’ve not had any tantrums when it’s come to leaving time, unlike some of the other children.  I’m hoping we’ll not suffer those in future.