For the last couple months B and I have been going to "Lapsit" at the Edmond library nearly every Tuesday morning. Lapsit generally consists of about 15 minutes of "free play" where the kids run around and enjoy the many buckets of toys provided by the library. These include stations for: cars/vehicles, push/ride-on toys, play kitchen, music, reading, dress-up, dolls, blocks, puzzles, magnetic board with shapes, stairs, tunnel and sometimes a parachute. The second 15 minutes focuses on circle time. We sit in a circle and the librarian does some basic games, reads a story and usually there is a related song and/or poem. Next, there is a song or two and finally bubble time. B has grown to like nearly all of this but resists the "Shake your Sillies" or other song/dance time. He always clings to me and won't participate. The same is true for all the songs and motions that make up the 15 minute circle time the last Tuesday of the month when Lapsit morphs into "Toddlerobics." This mostly means that instead of a story there are more fun songs with motions, dancing, etc... We've tried Toddlerobics twice and B is having none of it. Yeseterday, we discovered that Lapsit is more or less ending or at least becoming a more formal program with registration. We won't be able to go again after next week until November 14th which is too bad as I think overall it has been really great. (Also, delightfully free, easy and flexible unlike many formal classes). Oddly, the reason for the change is that too many people are coming so sort of a victim of its own success.
Meanwhile, at my Mom's encouraging we signed up for a free session of Kindermusik. Today was our trial day and I was a bit anxious on two levels. First, B woke up at 3am today--- yep, did not ever really go back to sleep and neither Brent or I got much sleep after that either. Have absolutely no clue what the story was and by morning he was pretty irrational. (I'll spare the gory details). However, ever breakfast, some water play and Sid he seemed pretty normal. In short, we went anyway as we cancelled last week due to his drippy cold. (Yes, I'm crazy).
My second fear, tied to the Lapsit discussion above, was more or less realized. Kindermusik is pretty much all the things B doesn't like about lapsit but for an entire 40 minutes. He cried, squirmed, tried to escape and generally didn't participate for probably the first 30 or so minutes. He finally did join in a little bit when we got to instruments and enjoyed the jingle bells (Grandma B smiles). It looked like a lot of fun for the other parents whose kids were into it. They sang, put on costumes, danced, skipped, swayed and sang together. The quandry for me is, do we try it again and put this down to too little sleep and being scared of strangers (or being left places---which isn't going to happen) or do I move on and try something else? I do like having a weekly activity and for B to be around other kids so we'll continue to ponder. I might give it one more shot or maybe swimming next week? I'll let you know how it goes and am open to any suggestions.
This Week Project
Wednesday Journaling:
Our Meals:
Breakfast - Maple Brown Sugar LIFE cereal, milk & grapes
Lunch - Turkey & Corn Quesadillas, grapes, milk, water (some cereal & cranberries for B too)
Snacks - Chocolate, water, almonds, popcorn and dried cranberries (A), bagel, dried cranberries, goldfish crackers, cereal & grapes (B)
Dinner - Pepperoni Pizza, water & Dr. P (Brent)
Our Day:
3-7am- off and on crying, restless or little sleep all around
7-7:30am - Brent gets ready for work, breakfast, tv- snuggly blankets
8-9:30am - Sid the Science Kid, water play, daytime clothes, more blankets, preparing for work
9:30-11am - Driving to Kindermusik, playing on the lawn, Kindermusik, playing on the lawn and back home
11-11:30am - lunch time
11:30am-3pm - Nap time, working, reading, teleconferences, news/blog reading, talk to Audra
3-4pm - Grandpa B came to visit, B woke up hard from his nap, but perservered, had a snack, enjoyed his picnic table and was cute for Grandpa
4pm Brent gets home and Grandpa B leaves, more playing outside, tickling, spice smelling, cars, A on teleconference with Drexel
4:30-5:30pm Head to Tag Agency, get A driver's license, register to vote (next to last day!!), Go to Hobby Lobby to get album for this project
5:30- 7pm Dinner, tickling, pillows, jump on the parents fun, Bath time, Grandpa B is back for a couple quick questions, hugs, little boy kisses and bye-byes
7-7:30- Fun with cars! A little "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" from yesterday, sorting and playing with stuffed animals, Two books: Is Your Mama a Llama? and "Hippos go Berserk". Then night night as Brent drives back to Dorm Duty and I head back to work too.
7:30-10:30 - Brent doing dorm duty, Abbey - blogging, reading blogs, doing Drexel work, and maybe just a bit for GW, shower then sleep for everyone...
2 comments:
Last things first...Hippos Go Berserk is awesome! I love Sandra Boynton, and so does Timothy. We enjoy that and the Belly Button Book.
I'm sorry B had such a hard time sleeping. How frustrating, especially since you were dealing with a cranky toddler with little sleep yourself.
Maybe he's just not quite ready to socialize with other kiddos his age? That might be a little intimidating for him. Of course you might give it another go, but he may just want to do one-on-one activities with his Most Important People for a little while yet. Just my two cents, anyway. :)
It sounds like your days are quite busy and action-packed. I really admire that you take the time to do special activities with B. You have confirmed my long-held suspicion: you are a great mommy!
We do the "The Little Gym" classes which is equivelent to "Gymboree". Obviously we have not seen the older kids class, but we love our class. The entire room is one big play mat, maybe there you guys could go "explore" when he did not want to participate, and then slowly, over time, maybe he would want to join in with the group activity.
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