Some Catching Up

I guess I have a little catching up to do. I've been fighting off the crud for the past few weeks off and on and just haven't felt much like writing.

So, some recaps:

Halloween--
Alanna went trick or treating with Daddy and had a lot of fun. She came home with a ton of candy and is still 'pretending' trick or treat around the house from time to time as well as reading and re-reading her Dora Halloween book. Mommy took her to a community Halloween party earlier in the weekend and her absolute favorite game was the cake walk. She simply wanted to walk around and around and around to the music the whole time. I remember cake walks growing up--they pasted numbers on the floor and you walked until the music stopped, then someone drew a number from a bowl and if you were standing on that number you won. In those days though you actually got a cake. We used to have them at the church and you'd walk over to a table with all these cakes people had donated and got to pick one. This cake walk was simply for little pieces of candy and the numbers were on big pumpkins. Alanna didn't care though and just was excited by walking to the music.

Circus Class--
Alanna is no longer going to her circus class. The third class, she started exhibiting some signs of being frustrated with it. She wasn't at all interested in doing the stretching with her class and kept insisting that I be near her during the class. We thought maybe it was because she wasn't feeling the greatest and they'd had a week off.

The next week, I talked it up on Friday before class. She told me, "Mommy, I don't like Circus class". I asked her why and she said, "I'm too big." She says that rather than 'too little'. I explained that she was just the right size and that she'd get to see her friends and maybe jump on the trampoline and do somersaults. She told me, "I don't want to go." To her credit, she didn't whine or throw a tantrum, this was all matter of fact. So I told her we'd talk about it in the morning and see how she felt then. The next morning, she said the same thing, so we decided that we wouldn't go for that day.

Then the next week, we tried the same tactic. I told her that we'd be going to grandma's house after circus class on Saturday. She said she didn't like circus class. So, I again asked about somersaults and the trampoline. She told me, "Mommy, I do somersaults at home instead. I don't like it." So we decided that we were done with Circus class for now.

I think a lot of it was just too much too fast for her. She's never really had structure since she's always gone to an in-home daycare. They do activities, but not on a scheduled timeline. This was 60 minutes of structure from the moment they walk in the door until they leave. Even the rotations through somersaults, balance beam and such were structured. Nothing at all wrong with that, just a bit of an overload for her. And I think she knew she was the youngest/smallest which I'm sure also had an impact on her. We would never tell her she's last in the class obviously, but kids are darn smart and maybe we'll try it again if she's interested when she's older.

New Classes--
Since we believe that we do need to start introducing Alanna to some more structure in her life in preparation for preschool in a couple years. So, as Circus Class proved to be too much, I thought I'd check out some of the Community Classes instead.

She's now taking 'Pint Sized Picassos' on Tuesday nights for an hour. We've been to one class and she LOVED it. It's much more her pace and she's not the youngest there. They do an activity that's guided by the teacher for about 10 minutes, then they have open play while they set up for the next activity, then 10 more minutes painting or what not, then open play and so forth. She did great and was very proud of her artwork. I bought her a little door hanger at Ren Fest that has some clips on it for hanging artwork and she wanted it up right away.

She's also taking 'Kids in Motion' on Saturday mornings for 45 minutes. Jeb took her this weekend and again, she had a blast. This class uses sports concepts to do structured play. She's at the older age spectrum for this group which should also help build her confidence before we jump her into the next class. They played hockey with those big foam noodles, kicked soccer balls into nets (yes, uncle Scott will be pleased), and then played with a parachute. Remember doing those parachute games in Elementary school? Those were fun.

So I think we're now on the right track for getting her some structure, interaction with others her age, and not overwhelming her either.