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In the fall I was looking for an activity for Maya and decided on a gymnastics class at The Little Gym. For the past several months we’ve been heading out every Monday morning for her gym class. She loves it, well most of it. She still won’t go into the class on her own so I have to sit with her for the first 10-15 minutes. But, she is making progress and since she loves the class I’m okay with having to take my shoes off and sit on the floor until she’s comfortable.
Yesterday was the big grand finale class of this semester. Her little class put on a “show”. Basically, a demonstration of all the skills they’ve learned since the class started. They showed off the different jumps they’ve learned, their balance beam skills, high bar skills and tumbling skills. Watching these tiny little people, especially my little person, the tiniest one in the class, was so fun (and funny). The whole show ended with each child being called up to receive their achievement medal. Too cute.
Although the show started off on a rough note for Maya, she refused to participate until about half way through, she ended up having a great time and we got some great pictures of her performing her mad gymnastics skills.
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The next semester starts next week. I can’t wait to see what she learns this time. I’m hoping that she’ll be willing to go into the class all by herself (fingers crossed).
For Christmas Maya got all new Princess bedding for the big girl bed we had ordered for her. Since the new baby will need the crib she is now using as a toddler bed we decided to get her moved into a twin bed now so she doesn’t feel like the baby is taking her bed (gotta avoid jealousy were you can!). She was so excited about her new bedding it was hard to make her wait to use it until the new bed arrived.
You should have seen her face when the bed was finally all set up and the new princess bedding in place, pure joy. She wanted to hop right in bed.
I don’t think I’ve ever thought she was so big and so little at the same time more than I did when I saw her laying in her new bed. She looked so tiny in that big bed and yet seemed like such a big girl. It reminded me of the first time she slept in her crib. She seemed so tiny for that big old thing and now here she is big enough to sleep in a twin bed.
She loves her new bed, especially since it is all decked out with princess sheets, a princess comforter and princess pillows.
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When I peek in on her at night before I go to bed and see her all snuggled under her covers taking up next to no room in that big bed I wonder how I can slow time down and keep her from getting too big, too fast.
Maya has her very first dentist appointment coming up in a couple of weeks. I’m nervous about how it will go. I found this great pediatric dentist who is very highly rated and whose office is a kid’s paradise based on the pictures I’ve seen. And yet, I’m still nervous.
Maya is not a fan of those in the medical profession. It isn’t that she has ever had a bad experience or anything she just has never liked them. She only just now has started enjoying and engaging in conversation with her pediatrician instead of screaming her head off or cowering in fear on my lap. The nurse in her office is another story, she clearly remembers who gives the needles so there is no chance in hell that she will ever like the nurse.
When I called the dentist’s office and spoke with the receptionist to set up the appointment they said they will have her go back by herself for the appointment. She said the office is all open so I’ll still be able to see her but they like the kids to have the experience on their own. My heart sank. My kiddo, who won’t even go into her beloved gymnastics class on her own, will not take kindly to a person in scrubs trying to escort her back to a completely foreign environment by herself. I wish I knew it would go well. I wish I knew she would happily go off and there would be no epic fit throwing. I asked what happens if she won’t go by herself and she said they will just see how it goes and the last thing they want is for her to be afraid. Well that’s good. Maybe it’ll go better than I think.
My biggest fear in all of this is that Maya will develop my fear of the dentist. To say I’m not a fan of the dentist is an understatement. I have no reason to fear the dentist. I’ve never even had a single filling. But for whatever reason, I just do. I don’t want that for my child.
My fingers are crossed that this first appointment goes well. That she doesn’t throw a fit of epic proportions when they try to usher her back to the dental chair by herself. That she doesn’t cry out in fear of the dental assistant the way she does the minute she sees the nurse at the doctor’s office. That my little girl has a good first experience and doesn’t grow up to hate the dentist just like her momma.
Any tips or suggestions on how to make this work would be greatly appreciated.
So, my daughter either has an imaginary friend that she doesn’t like or she sees ghosts. I’m going with, she sees ghosts, even though I’m pretty sure I don’t believe in ghost. At least I didn’t until my daughter started seeing Tippy.
It all started a little over a year ago. We were living happily in our condo, having fun raising our adorable toddler and marveling at her explosion of words and concepts. Not aware of the presence of Tippy. One day I went in to get Maya out of her crib after a nap. She was standing up in her crib like she was known to do and she looked me square in the eyes and said, very matter of factly “I no like Tippy.” I wasn’t sure at first I had heard correctly but I decided to go with it. I asked her who Tippy was, her response was “I no like Tippy.” Okay, I had heard correctly the first time, obviously. ”Where is Tippy?” I asked hoping to glean more information about this strange new, whatever he or she was. ”Tippy right there.” She responded while pointing at the ceiling near her light. Hmm, I thought to myself, that’s a strange place for an imaginary friend, even one she doesn’t like. ”Tippy’s on the ceiling?” I asked for confirmation I was following correctly. ”Tippy right there, I no like Tippy.” she said again, still pointing at the ceiling. To say I was freaked out is an understatement.
For several months this conversation replayed itself. At least once a week or so she would mention Tippy and her disdain for him or her. I continued to ask questions and reassure her. I was eventually able to glean from her that Tippy was male, an older male at that. Creepy. As time went on Maya mentioned Tippy less and less often. Hoping he had disappeared and not wanting to scare my 2 year old I never mentioned him unless she did.
After we moved to our new house I had assumed Tippy would be gone, especially if he was a ghost as I was beginning to believe he was. And, that is exactly what happened. Tippy seemed to have stayed behind at our condo. Until we went to my in-laws place during our summer vacation, up in Canada. Now why Tippy decided to follow us up there I’ll never know, but he did.
My in-laws have a split level house and Maya decided it would be fun to stand on the landing upstairs and drop a ball down to me in the front foyer (2 flights of stairs down) and then have me throw the ball back up. We had been at this game for a little while when all of a sudden she closed the bathroom door (the bathroom door was just behind her). I said “Honey, you can leave the door open, why did you close the door.” Her response made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. “I don’t want to talk to Tippy, Tippy scary.” What the what!!!! After months of not making an appearance all of a sudden he was here, in my in-laws bathroom!! ”Tippy is here?” I asked her. ”Ya, I don’t want to talk to him, he’s scary.” She repeated.
Tippy only made the one appearance while we were at my in-laws, but it was enough to scare the living daylights out of me. Since our return Tippy has not made an appearance so I’m hopeful that he followed us up to Canada but decided not to follow us home.
Who is Tippy? What do you think, creepy imaginary friend or ghost?
A few weeks ago Maya started a gymnastics class for 3 and 4 year olds. Given her undying love of tumbling, jumping, swinging from bars, etc, I figured gymnastics was the way to go. It would give her an outlet for some of her energy. It would give her a chance to build confidence in herself and her abilities.
She loves it. Every Monday morning she gets super excited knowing that right after breakfast it will be time to head to her “gym class”. She is not, however, without apprehension about the class. This is her first independent class. The kids go into the room with the teacher on their own and the moms sit outside the room and watch through windows (at least that is the way it supposed to work).
The first couple of classes Maya wouldn’t go in on her own. I had to go in with her and she would sit on my lap and watch the class as they got started and then join in a few minutes later when she warmed up to the idea of being part of the class. By the third week I was able to sneak out half way through and when she noticed she was fine with it. The 4th week I thought I would try to push her a little and convinced her to go in by herself. She started out okay but then feel and hit her head, it was all down hill from there. She was inconsolable, even with me holding her and she begged to go home. I sat with her for a while and finally convinced her to rejoin her class while I sat in the room and watched. Last week, week 5, I had to sit in with her again for the whole class. I probably could have left the room part way through but didn’t want to push my luck. We’ll see what next week holds.
She is quite shy and definitely a “mommy’s girl”, but slowly I see her coming out of her shell. I see her interacting with her teacher and her classmates with so much more confidence than when she first started. I’m sure within a couple of weeks she’ll be running into the room with her friends without even a look back, without a care as to which side of the glass I am on.