Bringing up Biscuit: Small changes, big fun

Last Saturday, Biscuit and I met a friend and her little boy at a park for some play time and some rides. And we lucked out. The park was having some sort of children's day, and all the rides were free until 2 p.m.

We found this out when we went to the ticket window and found it shut and locked. I asked about tickets at the concession stand, and she told us about the free rides. For some reason, Biscuit was quite excited about free rides and made up a quick little "no tickets" song and dance, much to the amusement of my friend and me.

We've been to this park before, and Biscuit enjoyed it very much. And if you look back at the photos, you'll see Biscuit on the very same cars on the very same rides ... the red boat ... always a horse on the carousel ... the red fire helicopter ... and the red firetruck.

We rode the carousel three times, and two of those times, Biscuit's insistence on riding only a horse meant that he spent the whole ride stationary. No going up and down.

And when he went on the red firetruck, he knew exactly what it was going to be like. And when he went on the red fire helicopter, it was the same as the last time he rode the red helicopter.

Creature of habit ... lover of routine ... connoisseur of the comfort zone ... wait a minute, am I talking about Biscuit or me?

I'm talking about both. Sometimes the very things that frustrate you about yourself show up just as strong in your kids. And boy did Biscuit get a big dose.

Biscuit's daycare teacher shared a funny story with me a couple of weeks ago. I mentioned something about Biscuit's love of routine, and she said the second day Biscuit was there, it got to be naptime, and she pulled out all the cots. Each cot has a kid's name written on it, so they have the same one every day. All the sheets get washed, so it's sort of a free-for-all with kids grabbing sheets out of the laundry basket.

Biscuit's teacher turned around to find Biscuit with tears filling his eyes.

"What's wrong?" she asked him, thinking he was scared to be taking a nap on his second day.

"This is not my sheet," Biscuit told her.

She finally got Biscuit to calm down enough to explain to her that the sheet he pulled out of the basket wasn't the sheet he had used on his first day there. And clearly, he's always supposed to have the same sheet.

The other kids didn't care which sheets they had, so Biscuit's teacher let him walk around and find the sheet he had the day before. And since that day, Biscuit gets to pick out his sheet first.

I struggle with this because part of me wants to say, "Suck it up, it's just a sheet." But a bigger part of me knows the anxiety Biscuit feels when things aren't like he thinks they should be. I'm trying to work with Biscuit on expanding his comfort zone, and I think knowing how he feels helps me have more patience with him.

So once Biscuit had gotten stuck twice on a horse that didn't move, I suggested that for our third time, we get on and ride the first animals we could find that moved up and down. I talked it up like it was a game, and Biscuit seemed excited about it.

But alas, the fates were not with me. The first animals we got to that moved up and down ... WERE HORSES!!!

But what I said to Biscuit about the carousel must have sunk in because he asked to ride the helicopter ride again, but this time, he got into an airplane. And then he rode in a blue truck instead of the red firetruck on the other ride.

There were also some inflatables set up just for the day -- a bounce house and a giant slide that Biscuit climbed and went down without hesitation.

And the day wouldn't have been complete without a little time on the playground. Biscuit is still so little that he gets a frustrated when he sees kids climbing parts of the playground that he still struggles with. But he mastered a funky-looking ladder that he's never been able to climb before, and if I hadn't been so busy celebrating with him, I could've snapped a picture of the proud smile he wore when he did it. But as much as I'd love to have it captured in a photo, I wouldn't trade that for swapping high-fives and his look of satisfaction.

Biscuit and I were tired by the time we left, but we had a nice morning.