What Mommy learned at the Hands On House

Today Caden had developmental therapy at the Hands On House in Lancaster. He had such a blast there! Last month we went to the Curiosity Connection at the State Museum in Harrisburg. I highly recommend these types of outings for any children in the 2-7ish age range. There's so many great toys, games, dress-up areas, etc to outlast any young kid. In fact at Curiosity Connection, Caden never even made it through the whole facility. I think he learned his lesson for Hands On House though because he made a dash from the front door to the very back of the building like he wanted to scope it out before he committed to any one area first. He always amazes me at places like this. It's a new environment, with all kinds of strangers and noises around, with new things to do and play with that he's never seen before. I fret about how he'll handle it, will he make friends and as it turns out, he left Mommy in the dust. He was in his element, holding his own with all the other kids, just one of many busy toddlers. I love to watch him examine something new, figure out how it works or how he'll describe something. He saw a toy cow that didn't look much like a cow to me other than having a black and white pattern. What would Caden think of it? He examined it and saw the big giant pink snout on the face and signed "pig". It really did look like a pig nose. What a smart boy! There was a maze of metallic tubes on one wall that you could place wiffleballs into and see where they rolled out. Caden placed a basket at the end of one tube and then traced along it with his finger till he found the opening, put the ball in, and then ran back to the basket to watch it roll out. My boy is a genius! There was a shelf area full of clear containers to place colorful plastic widgets into. I was trying to get Caden to sort the widgets into these containers by color, which he wanted no part of. I kept reaching in to fish them back out for him when suddenly he spun the whole contraption around and the widgets fell through a hole in the back into a bin below. It was set up on a lazy susan device that I hadn't even noticed but my boy figured out. You see what I'm saying - he's brilliant! Time and time again, he amazed me as he worked his way through this building. All that worrying beforehand for naught as he was more than fine. I have a feeling that Caden will teach me that lesson several more times as he grows up until one day I will look at my son and see him as an adult. And I will know that all that worrying I did when he was younger about his future was for naught, because he will be more than fine.