Camera's Birthday Party at Jump N Jungle

Tonight we went to our friend Camera's 3rd birthday party at Jump N Jungle and Kelsie loved it! For the first 30 minutes Mike and I had to go down the slide with her, but she climbed up each time without help. Finally she decided to try going down the slide alone and after that she would do it all by herself. Each time she would jump up and say "I did it all by myself" she was so proud of herself. We were so proud of her too! She even went through the little obstacle course they had behind the slide by herself. She still wanted us in the actual bouncing areas, but I can handle that and I understand why. Kelsie is not yet able to jump and get both feet off the ground yet, so with our help we could get her bouncing but alone she just barley jumped at all. We had to leave the room a couple of times when she asked for a break from the other kids, but that is wonderful in and of itself. She was able to let us know she needed a break instead of just breaking down and not expressing what was wrong.

She lasted for almost the entire hour of playtime, but then she was ready for the pizza and cake! She ate her pizza really well even though she initially wanted us to cut it up. I just explained to her that we didn't have a knife and she was OK with that. Before that would have been a major issue and she wouldn't have eaten it, but she just dealt with it today. She ate her cupcake and then wanted to go play again. By this time she lost all patience and got extremely agitated when we told her playtime was over, so we left.

Unfortunately all of the excitement on top of this being a MDO day was too much for her. When we got to the car we had a 20 minute meltdown. Kelsie was literally screaming and crying the whole time and refused to be consoled. Finally she got her fit out of her system and climbed into her seat. She didn't want to go straight home, so we took her to the "lobster store" aka Kroger.

Overall tonight is a perfect example of how far she has come in coping with situations that used to be completely too much for her. She still has a long way to go, but her progress just continues to amaze me! I am so excited that she has figured out how to express her feelings which saves many of the tantrums that would have occurred in the past!






Kelsie going down the little slide alone


Kelsie headed into the obstacle course


Kelsie coming down the big slide alone


Kelsie's first time drinking from a water fountain (this is during one of our breaks)


Group Photo was supposed to be all the kids, but Kelsie insisted I sit with her


Here we are getting ready to leave luckily we had party favors for a distraction!