Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 16/01) - Hidden away far from the winding hallways and stairs is a parents refuge in the basement of the Calvary Church.

At least four days a week they gather, sit, have a coffee and talk to peers.

Dakota Earle builds a block tower as her dad Dave, who is on maternity leave, looks on. - Dawn Ostrem/NNSL photo

There, on the carpeted floor, are children between their terrible twos and finicky fours, wrestling with others for toys and banging plastic hammers on plastic barns and plastic blocks.

"It's a godsend," said mother Marion Tobin. Especially in Yellowknife where you kind of get snowbound all winter."

Joshua, a three-and-a half-year-old boy, became the subject of a brief interview about what the play group means to him. He spoke on behalf of the other toddlers when asked if he liked coming here.

"Yep," he replied the was also asked if he liked the other kids.

"Yep, he said again, concentrating on a block building the reporter had accidentally brushed by and knocked over.

"You wrecked it!," he yelled.

In an effort to make up for it, the female reporter began building a new garage for Joshua's block car.

"He's building me a garage!" he yelled to his mother Wanda Roberts.

"Don't take it personally, he calls everyone he," she told the reporter. "Even me."

A stay-at-home dad just started coming to the group, which asks for a nominal $1 drop-in fee, and followed his daughter Dakota around the maze of toys and snacks. Dave Earle took a year of maternity leave to look after his other child, a newborn baby.

"I'm glad I did it, it is a nice change," he said. "It's nice to get out of the house. It was OK in the summer because I could walk around or go to the park."

At the end of the two-hour session Joshua huddled into his mother's lap after an incident with a plastic wagon behind the snack table.

"I wanna go home," he cried. Just as quickly as the trauma began, it ended. The toddler began handing out cookies to the other children, then perched on a blanket and listened at storytime beside his buddy Dakota. More information on the play group can be found in Yellowknifer's classifieds section.