gymnastics

Olive and I had our first parent + me gymnastics class today. I was so curious exactly what they'd have 18 month-4 year olds doing. It was great! Olive wasn't quite sure at first. Our house is pretty quiet, so 16 kids in one room with parents and a sibling or two was a little overwhelming to her at first. Then came circle time with song and dance, sticking feet in the air and running in circles.... she really wasn't sure about that. Then some other kids started crying and that was it. Her face gradually melted, and eventually she did cry. We were able to take a step back and observe from the outside of the group that everyone was actually ok, and from the outside, it didn't look quite so chaotic (i can only imagine the view from 2 ft tall). Next came the "obstacle" course which she loved. Monkey hangs on parallel bars, bouncing on trampolines and vaults, balance beams, hand-stand wedges, somersault wedges, bear crawls, and foam climbing circuits; she loved it all but the bear crawl. By that point she realized we were there to have fun and she was bouncing around and had made a couple friends. I have to say I was a little skeptic about ME in a mommy and me class, but it was actually fun. I decided these are the kind of mom's I can hang with; the kind that are willing to embarrass themselves by doing stupid itsy bitsy spider dances and cheers, the kind that don't care if their buts giggle when they exaggeratedly run to convince their kid it's fun. No curtain, drapery, crafty talk where I realize how not "girly" I am, no social elitist, expensive clothes and tastes talk where I am reminded of how not cultured I am :) These are the mom's I want to be friends with :)

To remember this time (again)

Olive is 7 days shy of 20 months. That's 4 months plus 7 days shy of 2 years!!! Right now she is:

waking up and still, barely cuddling for a while before asking to get down and really start the day.

asks for baaaaaeh (aka ballet) first thing out our bedroom door which means I turn on classical radio and she shows off all the moves she knows. She knows how to port de bras, chase, chain, grende jete (well, grende for a 1 year old), attitude derriere, tend (ish), and saute. She learned all of these by watching and I have not intentionally taught any of them to her. I guess she has a dancing bug like me :)

She loves bossing the animals around, her favorite is holding Marley's leash.

She is working on more and more words which is cute, but a very frustrating process for her since none of us understand half of her experimental words.

loves "helping" no matter what you're doing. "Clean clean" is one of her favorite activities.

Coloring is a daily activity, though choosing which crayon to use makes up 95% of the coloring process.

If she can get her hands on the home phone loves to push the redial button. (sorry grandma)

She can climb out of her crib when desperate.

She loves pushing her "wa-wa's" (dollies) in her stroller (aka go-go)

HATES being made to sit in a chair to eat a meal; generally doesn't like eating a meal under any circumstance come to think of it.

Loves watching Olivia Pig, ballets, and home videos of herself way too much.

Plays this game with Papi or anyone who knows the game I guess where whomever her playmate happens to be pretends to be sleeping and she wakes them up with a kiss. It sounds corny, but it's actually quite sweet.

Running is a favorite activity especially when she can convince someone to chase her.

Thinks that every bump is an owie and deserves ice. This all started from one time that she bit her tongue and it legitimately needed ice....

Loves throwing balls and will not throw them until she walks to a hard surface since this offers the best bounce.



There are so many little activities and nuances about her that I take for granted as being her and then suddenly realize that every day, she is being re-created. I want to make sure I remember tomorrow who she is today. I can't wait to see who she'll be tomorrow.