At Christmas, one of the things I gave each grandson was an "event with Grammy." This followed from asking my son, Brooks for suggestions on what to buy his boys. Brooks responded, "Give them a special time one-on-one with you." There are days during the year that I have time with each one alone--when they're sick or have teacher workdays, but at Christmas, it's an intentional gift of my time and doing something I think each child will enjoy.
This year, I gave my younger grandson, Parks who is three, a trip to the Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh. I'd gone as a volunteer with his older brother, Baker's kindergarten class on a field trip in December. He'd told me several times that Parks would like different activities in the two-story building filled with all kinds of interactive, hands-on learning and fun.
I was relieved yesterday morning when I arrived at their house and Parks ran to me, excited to be going to the museum. He was impatient for us to leave and wanted to get there as soon as possible. He handled the fifty minute drive without asking too many times how much longer it would be. And best of all, Parks held my hand without question as we navigated through the parking deck and down the block to the museum entrance. Once we were inside, he looked at the kids swarming and the colorful signs pointing to the various play areas.
Baker had prepped Parks, telling him he'd like playing in the firetruck, floating a boat on the waterway, and climbing on the pirate ship. Parks quickly checked out each area, looking at the kids around him, playing briefly, then moving on. After about thirty minutes he said, "I want to go home." I knew the museum could be overwhelming, but most of the time Parks had been a child who'd get involved and tune out everything else. I convinced him to try one more exhibit and finally found the anime area that Baker had loved. You colored a picture of a form of transportation then it was scanned and projected onto a busy city scene on the wall. It was hard for Parks to see the bus he'd colored in the midst of the moving vehicles.
On our way toward the exit we passed the ice hockey play area, with kids in sock feet hitting the puck on a plastic-type floor that simulated ice. The kids who were playing were all bigger than Parks. He waited at the side to get a hockey stick once a player finally gave it up. While he's played air hockey, I don't know what experience he's had with regular hockey.
It was interesting watching him size up what was going on in the game. He took the stick and hit at the puck between two bigger boys. Parks was irritated by something the older boy did and Parks raised the stick like he was going to smack him. I called out to him and shook my head and he stopped. I was amazed at how fearless my little grandson can be, the one who still wanted to go home.
He loves snacks and hadn't forgotten that Baker told him about the cafe where I'd bought him an iced cookie decorated like a snowflake. Parks didn't hesitate to go to the cafe and was pleased with the valentine-themed cookie and juice he selected. He didn't say anything about going home when he was eating his snack :) I'd promised him pizza for lunch, thinking we'd be at the museum longer--so we still had that.
After pizza, we had time before we were due back at his house. I took him to Kelly Road Park in my community that had lots of play structures. He settled into the sandbox area that was filled with large dump trucks and shovels. He looked perfectly at home there, playing in the dirt, then sliding on the slides, and climbing up a rope wall. He tried out a merry-go-round type ride with a group of older kids and joined them in their gleeful exclamation. He was in his element and didn't want to go home 🙂
Altogether, at Marbles he'd approached a new type of environment without the grounding of his older brother, or the camaraderie of his Pre-K classmates. In a sense, he'd 'played up.' He'd surveyed the new environment, scoped out the activities and ages of children, and had briefly taken part. The only thing he got involved in with other kids was playing hockey. He had enough to satisfy him and when he saw that, he put a limit on it by saying, "I want to go home."
In the course of riding back to his house, he and I played a car game of embellishing the scene from Go Dog Go! playing the voices of the boy and girl dog, her wanting to know "Do you like my hat?" and the boy dog responding, "I do not like your hat!" We kept changing it so the girl dog put on different outrageous hats until finally the boy dog said, "I do like your party hat!" That was great fun for Parks, given his laughter. I love his imagination and how we can share in making up new stories.
He was glad to get home, running from the car into the house to see his brother and the rest of the family. Later, he settled on his couch, watching one of his favorite animated shows. It was time for him to rest in the familiar.
It was good spending the day with Parks. When you let a child lead you in what you do, you give up control---and that includes, controlling the outcome. From an adult, rational point of view, I could have been disappointed that after driving all that ways, going to that effort, paying the admission--my grandson spent less than forty-five minutes in that museum. But that was enough, he had the experience, and one day if his kindergarten class has their field trip there--it will at least be familiar. He will be at a different place when he's five--and that will come too soon; that will definitely come too soon.
And hopefully, he'll remember that special day with Grammy, along with other special days. What a precious gift to have time with that sweet, robust, funny little boy.
Parks has loved this story since he was little--this pic from March of '22.
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