Earning a Trip to the Pyramids

Alex has been operating under a new reward system.  He now gets stars for having listened to Mommy or paying attention to all the rules in class or doing his homework.  And there are no toys to be won in this reward system.   There are only treats and adventures.   At the end of last week, Alex won 30 stars.  Ten percent of them are to be banked, but he can spend the remaining stars as he wishes.  He wished to spend 20 stars on an adventure.

Mommy had her midterm this morning.  There was no way she felt like dashing back to Alex's music class right after school.  (We are not taking that class again. Too bad. I liked the program, but it MUST be held earlier in the day for preschoolers.  Sigh.) So, she offered a choice to Alex.  We could go to Music School, and if we did, he could have Alex time after we got home.  We could stay in Manhattan, but he had to take a half hour Rest Time if we did that.  Or we could go straight home and he could nap and wind up with a colored in Angry Bird and three more stars. 

He knows that Central Park is just a few blocks away from school. What do you think he chose?

Yeah.  That.

Our first playground wasn't so intriguing to him. It was pretty and rustic and all, but it had no fun equipment.  I promised him that another was just down the walkway.    It was a smaller version of the Ancient Playground; the one located across the Traverse from the Ancient Egyptian exhibit of the Met. (And which you can see from the glass walls of the cafe and the Temple of Dendur.)

Pyramids! Temples! Sand!! He was in his glory.

That pyramid had a ladder going up to the top from inside the tunnel.  Alex was, at first, afraid to climb down the ladder.  When some older boys overheard me encouraging him to try it, one of them offered to show him how.  After that, Alex cautiously tried it and surprised himself with the result.  He became ALL about his new skill then!

After having jumped from a low rung

Slowly climbing down

 

SO much fun was had. 

Mommy felt badly about telling Alex that they had to leave briefly to go find a rest room.  She promised with all of her heart that he could come back to the playground if he liked.   On the walk to the restroom, we spotted a pretty special squirrel. 

He was red.

 But after we'd used the bathroom, Alex wanted to keep walking.  We did until we found another playground.  (This one less taxing on Mommy. Yay!)    It had a nice slide and climbing pipe frame and a cool sand pit.  Alex and Mommy stopped to see the sand pit and Alex joined in playing with two younger boys, one of whom nicely offered to share his sand digging toys with Alex.   That boy's name was Carson and he was with his grandma Ronni. Carson was only a month past two, but so incredibly articulate.  He was able to ask Alex his name, remember it and even say goodbye to Alex in the right context. 

It was soon 4:30 and turning cold.  Mommy told Alex that we had to leave and he was happy about it in the least. (Lots of crying. So much for "Rest Time" doing the work of a nap.)  But there was one more event to brighten Alex's day.  We didn't know it when we got on the bus headed for Grand Central, but we were going to the circus that day...