This afternoon, Connor and I went to a JW Tumbles class on a “free trial” basis. This is the third such class we’ve attended. I’m assuming at some point they’ll actually make me pay for my free trial class – but so far, so good. The class has some fun components, but it’s expensive and not really our style. For one thing, despite all this fun equipment being scattered on the sides of the room, the first 15 minutes of class are consumed with singing songs and stretching, and other random group activities. Since Connor has been asking to go to yoga with me, I told him the stretching part was like yoga and he looked at me like I was nuts to go there. Next, the leader teaches a “skill”, which in today’s case meant flipping Connor over as if he were performing a somersault, and after Connor ran back to the shoe cubby and had a few jelly beans, he enjoyed the somersault. Then it’s free play time, and that’s actually pretty fun, because you get to run around and play with whatever you want. The leaders bring out different toys to play on, and at one point they brought out a “roller coaster” which is a little car that goes down a ramp with a couple of bumps, and that was cool enough that Connor actually waited in line for his turn - twice.
Connor also tried the monkey bars, and he did manage to hang on to the first rung under his own power. Ed and I have noticed that he’s gotten a lot stronger lately, but I didn’t think he had a chance at performing this feat. When the leader told him to move one hand to the next rung, he looked at her as if she was insane, and I said "that sounds like crazy talk, doesn't it?" and thus ended his time on the monkey bars. Then we went back into a circle and the leader announced it was “separation time” and invited the parents to move out of the circle and watch their kids interact with the others. Connor is perfectly happy to explore on his own, but we don’t do “separation time”. Particularly when it means Connor goes into a little ball pit with a girl that was much bigger than him who promptly attempted to shove him out. I told “Sage” to stop pushing that it wasn’t nice. I can’t say if Sage’s mom was silently condoning the ferocity of her child or if she didn’t see the maneuver that was worthy of the WWF. In any case, she sat idly by. Ed's comment when I related the scene to him was "kids are jerks". We don't have an explanation for why Connor doesn't push back and I don't think I've ever seen him initiate a shoving match, though I have seen him try and steal a toy from another kid a few times. But every time he is shoved, he promptly comes and gets me so that there is a monitor on hand should he get shoved again. Since Connor was one of the younger ones in the class, when he did light up and go running toward a little car to ride on, some other kid got there first, which sort of bummed him out. Because, after all, if Connor wanted it, the car must be pretty cool. It was fun to go because I was exhausted, the weather was bad, and this was a nice indoor activity that Connor could participate in and get out lots of energy. He enjoyed climbing up into a little pirate ship and climbing a ladder to the “attic” and then sliding down.
Since Connor has moved his bedtime to 8:30, rather than 8:00, we had time for a stroller ride after dinner before bath. We were going to visit “the rocks”, but once he got seated, Connor decided he wanted to go to the park. So off we went. Ed revived an old favorite game of sliding Connor down some bars and Connor and I hung out on the slide.
Isn't summer fabulous?
Elaine
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