Bounce!!!

Today Tyler had a birthday party to attend for his little friend (and our our ex-neighbor) Ashlyn. It was at a place called Pump it Up, which is an inflatable bounce place. I KNEW Tyler would be iffy about this, at best. He's not the most adventurous child, which isn't the worst thing in the world, but it does make new activities a bit overwhelming at times. We spent 45 minutes in the first bounce room, in which Tyler refused to bounce in anything. We were able to ease him over towards the equipment where he patted the inflatables (like drums). Umm, I guess that was a step in the right direction. The next 45 minutes was spent in a different bounce room. This time Tyler was pretty willing to get near the equipment and enjoyed watching his daddy in there, jumping around like an idiot. Eventually I climbed in and was able to coerce him in (truth be told, a candy bribe was involved). Once he got in he LOVED it! He did never really do any of the obstacle course stuff, or slides or anything, but he had a ton of fun bouncing and shooting baskets. Of course by then there was probably only 25 minutes left of bounce time so he wasn't nearly ready to be done by the time was up. However, as soon as he realized cake would be in the next room, he didn't need too much convincing! So, he immensely enjoyed his icing (he never seems to eat the cake part of the cupcake), juice box, and treat bag. We came home and Al let him try to blow off some steam outside. Luckily now he's already in bed for the night, due to the combination of bouncing and the abbreviated nap he took (due to the party). Phew, that means I get to head to bed anytime I want to as well. Which is good, because I discovered that bounce parties aren't the best destination for pregnant women.

As a cute side story, this morning Al went out to get McDonald's breakfast, and as he drove home he spotted a garage sale. In all actuality, he would never WILLINGLY stop at a garage sale, but he spotted electronics. Anyway, he bought this ridiculously huge computer (not the monitor or anything, just the main computer part...the proper name of which escapes me right now). He brought it home "for parts". Great, more junk to keep around. Anyway, Tyler always wants to help whenever Al works on stuff like this, but he's quite limited in what he can do, for fear that he'll damage it. Well, Al had no intention of keeping the casing of the computer, so he figured he'd let Tyler "help". He loosened all the screws and Tyler, quite proudly, undid them all. He kept yelling to me "Mommy, I'm being a big help. I'm good with a screwdriver". We both couldn't contain our laughter when he announced "Daddy, I love you. Thank you so much for letting me screw with you.".