Har Paw Villa - A Whole New Kind of Playgroup

From Maddie: “Playgroup is fun. It was the best one because it had lots of things that I liked. It is the best in the whole entire world because it has a beautiful table. I’m going to take Ben and Dad there because it’s so fun. You go up stairs and you can’t go on the paint parts.”

Yesterday we decided to be adventurous. Playgroup through our church was planned for a park. Since the congregation members are literally from all over the entire country/island it’s going to be all over the place. Several people took the bus or taxi, only two people drove of the eight moms that came. I’ve never in my life been to a playgroup where people took buses and taxis to get there. If you didn’t have a car or a ride you just didn’t go.

We tried the bus this week. It was a little scary at first not knowing where we were heading and knowing for sure I wouldn’t recognize it when we arrived so it could go terribly wrong and I’d be stuck, lost in the big, huge, scary city with two kids. The up side was that I didn’t have to show up if things went bad and it was a great first try at the bus system because I could take one bus without a single transfer. Both good things for a beginner.

Everything went really smooth. Public transit is still new enough to Jake and Maddie that they were content to watch everything out the window as we drove along. That meant I was able to hold the bus schedule in hand and watch for landmarks, buildings and street signs to keep track of where we were so I knew when to get off. It was about a 35 minute ride and we hopped off. Then I tried to get my bearings and found we were one stop farther than I had hoped, but it was only a quarter kilometer beyond my target so not a bad walk back.

The park we went to was beyond interesting. It was the Tiger Balm Park. The family that discovered and marketed Tiger Balm had the park built to give back to the community that brought them success so it was free an it was phenomenal to walk through. One mom kept saying "I feel like I walked into a watercolor painting." I think that is a great way to describe it. Think Mary Poppins jumping into the sidewalk pictures. Everything was 3-D and painted with bright colors. It was pretty old, so some stuff was showing age, but still magnificent detail went into every square inch of the acres of sculptures. There were sidewalks that went up and down, stair cases that lead all over the place. It was a bit like a maze there were so many ways to turn and the entire park was like the pictures show. Big and little sculptures, even an underground tunnel totally painted with waves and water leading to spiral staircases in and out. To put light into the tunnel the roof had big vertical voids which were were the outer edges under a gazebo and foot bridge.

Near the beginning Maddie had to use the bathroom and Gage wanted to come to, so his mom Jessica and I took them. Then we couldn’t find the rest of the group but figured if we wandered we’d hit into them. After all, we were only gone about 4 minutes so they couldn’t be too far. We explored for an hour letting Maddie and her brand new best friend Gage lead us along wherever they felt like running. It was delightful and a much needed day of free energetic running for my two kids who have been locked down in a hotel setting for way too long.

After an hour, Jessica called someone and found out most of the moms camped out on that tunnel gazebo place and the kids ran up and down and around them for hours. We meandered back and spend another hour just there. We had some goldfish crackers, raisins and water then they went off to explore the nearby area again. Maddie and her great imagination began to lead the group through what then became the “Spooky Tunnel” and they would all make loud high pitched spooky ghost noises as they ran through the tunnel. Jacob was the absolute best. He is becoming such a big kid and loves to follow in anything Maddie does. He’d drag me through the “pookie tunnel” over and over with a smile from ear to ear and his hands in front of his body bouncing up and down like a zombie coming to attack but not really sure why he was doing it other than that’s just what you are supposed to do in a pookie tunnel. I spent more time than I wanted in the tunnel and less time getting to know the other moms, but it was still a great day and I did get to chat with Jessica for a long time in the beginning. A much needed day for all.

After almost three hours I decided we needed to call it quits. Jake should have already been down for a nap. I was out of water and the kids were drenched in sweat. Maddie’s entire head and all of her hair was so wet it looked like she had been out swimming. It was gross. We packed up and walked to the bus. Jake fell asleep on the ride home and Maddie tried but was too darn interested in absolutely everything going on around her. She has been such an amazing walker here. Maybe it’s because we haven’t really ever asked her and we haven’t had a stroller until I broke down and bought one* on Tuesday so riding wasn’t an option.