Gym class warrior

(I apologize for the lack of spacing in this post. What the heck is up with Blogger? REFUSES to put spaces in. Argh)

Today, Lily had her first gym class. It's hardly a gym class...just a fun room for toddlers to run around and pretend to try new "gymnastics"-like moves. She is almost 2. By the time Andrew was almost 2, he had taken numerous classes, gone to library story-times, etc. Lily has never done anything...anything...except wait outside Andrew's classes. It's not entirely my fault. You can't bring older siblings into little kids' classes, and Andrew only had school 2 days a week last year for a few hours each day, so no classes ever fit. And the storytimes at our local library are at 1 pm...it's like they don't actually want kids to come so they plan it for the universal naptime.

I digress... Now that Andrew is going to be in school 4 days a week, I signed Lily up for a gym class. We'll do this for 10 weeks, and then I'm going to put her in a music class. Michael will tag along in the Baby Bjorn...no issues there. He'll love it as much as her. ;)

Andrew's school doesn't start until next week, so he tagged along with me. We walked into the entry way with 4 other mothers...and their 2-ish little boys...all first borns. All only children. Two of the women are pregnant. I felt like we were the friggin' circus coming to town. Oh, how I remember the days of taking classes with one child...building a whole day around that one child's schedule. Anyway, I brought my whole rag-ma-tag crew in and probably scared the CRAP out of them. Except that all 3 of my children were FABULOUS. Seriously, they make me so proud. I had explained to Andrew that this was a little kids class, so he may not be able to play, but if he could, he'd have to defer to the little ones. They let him play, and he was so gentle and kind and immediately made way for the little guys if they wanted the trampoline or the ball pit, etc. I just swelled up with pride at him...what a neat person he has turned out to be. Michael had refused to sleep that morning (see yesterday's post), but he sat in his stroller for the first half-hour without a peep. Then he went into the Bjorn and just kicked his legs and smiled.

And Lily. Oh, my Lily. She did not disappoint. She is soooooo different from her brother. She wanted to try everything. At one point she tried walking across a platform, fell through a crack and got stuck. It scared her and she cried. 10 minutes later, she was trying to do it again. It would have taken Andrew 4 weeks to even get NEAR the contraption again. She ran from obstacle to obstacle just laughing and falling and laughing some more. She is clumsy, but she had fun. I just love this little girl. It makes me want to sign her up for a million classes.

One more thing before I bore you to tears. Um, this post made me realize I have a confession to make. Up until last week, Lily always went to bed with a cup of milk. Yes, she actually slept with it. Bad Mommy, Bad Mommy. It stemmed from when I was big and pregnant and couldn't really cuddle with her before bed. That's when we used to drink the milk. So I just started plopping her into the crib with the full cup of milk. But I know this is bad and it needs to stop before I rot all her teeth out of her head. So I got up the nerve to have the fight. I had a long talk with Lily about how Mommy doesn't drink milk in bed, Andrew doesn't drink milk in bed, etc etc. She started in telling me who DOESN'T drink milk in bed. Then bedtime came. And she took her cup of water without a fight. Honestly...no problem at all. All these months I've been giving her the milk because I didn't want to listen to her cry all night. Oops. Rotted her teeth for nothing, I guess. But cut up her chicken nugget the wrong way...yikes. A colossal fit will ensue. Just proves I don't understand the toddler mind.

Attempting to capture Little Piggie-tails and her OSU outfit. Impossible.

Still trying to get a shot. She won't sit still or smile. Bugger.

My children do have a mother. I finally remembered to have Jeff take a picture with me in it. Although we are in our pj's...I don't think it's half bad.