Boot Camp for Tots

Ainsley wanted to go pick up pictures at the mall, so he took Ryan and left me with a sleeping Erin.
Who woke up as her mother was backing out of the driveway.
So back she came (I called screaming WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS THING??!!), allowing us to make it a family outing. One of the last in the Escape, since the mini-van was in for scheduled maintenance and bunburning apparati installation.
Can't believe I ever considered the Escape big enough to be 'the family car'. Maybe we're just spoiled with the Sienna, but man. If Ryan kicks that chair one more time... at least it was nice to have Erin within arm's reach for a bit.
Spent the afternoon cleaning up the workshop (three boxes from DTRA have been sitting on the workbench for over a month), then went to wake Ryan up so we could go to his friend Jonathan's 3rd Birthday Party at Gymboree (tee emm). "Isn't that exCITING!?!" I asked the lump in the bed.
"Daddy...*pause for sigh*...be quiet."
For some reason Ainsley found that response rather hilarious.
The party was held in a colorful romper room of mats, slides, balls, cushions, and various other obstacles, with a 'Miss Marissa' leading the seven or so youngsters through a succession of silly follow-the-leader or 'rescue the stuffed' animals games. So pretty much like field training, without the machine gun fire.
Learned that Ryan isn't so good at following/listening to directions (from strangers, at least), but he does well copying what others are doing. Based on his daredevil diving from last week, he had no problem jumping three feet off a structure into an inner tube on a thick mat covered in a parachute fabric, time and again, though he had issues with the monkey bars-under-the-tent thing ("Go again?" "No tenk you."). He enjoyed being told where to find the animals and put them in the barrel, but would just as soon run around in a circle and let the birthday boy chase him. Especially if he could get a glimpse of himself in the mirror on every turn.
Erin was enjoying herself, too, playing with a big purple rubber ball with thirty-eight nipples on it (heaven!) and being doted on by grandparents who thought she was the bees knees. Whatever that means. It was just hard to find a place on the floor where toddlers wouldn't be running by at thirty mph, capes flapping behind them.
At one point, Miss Marissa stretched out the parachute on the big mat and said she needed the parents to join in and
YAY!
someone said. I'm not saying who.
We got to bounce beach balls around, and then the kids were invited to roll into the middle so we could wave the parachute around with them, but Ryan didn't care for that too much. Thankfully, he's of the temperament that he doesn't immediately start crying -- he says, rather low-voiced and methodically, "I would like to get out, please."
Other than that, I think he had a great time. I'm glad he can play well with others, and also enjoy running around by himself and not being a sheep. I liked watching him interact with Jonathan, who asked if he could follow Ryan up and down the slide. "Oh, sure," Ryan replied. Ryan even went so far as to help blow out his birthday candles. What a great helper.
Took him home for a bath, which is an adventure now that he's discovered swimming... "Ryan, we don't splash in here. Just in pools," I say, water dripping from my shirt sleeves and forehead.