Taking the Scenic Route

We just got back from the Tumble Tots class at the YMCA.  Nothing like a class like that to make you realize how different your child is.  First, we had to take him out of the room during set up because he wouldn’t leave the mats where they were and such…no biggie, we just went and played with legos in the family center in the next room.  When class began, everybody was supposed to sit.  Not gonna happen.  Although there were two other boys who were wiggly, I was the only parent in an active battle to keep him within a five foot radius.  This class if for walking to 3 years old…it wasn’t like he was younger than everybody else, in fact, he towered over everybody else.  The leader kept talking about the song they were going to sing and in my mind I was begging her to start the flippin’ song already….I knew *that* would get his attention enough to not be going ballistic because I was trying to keep him in one place.  It seemed like it took forever!  Finally, they were let loose to play on the equipment set up.  He did a lot better than the last time I attempted the class in understanding that he needed to wait for other kids…wasn’t always happy about it, but he at least seemed aware he wasn’t the only one in the room.  He walked across the parallel bars only holding on to my fingertip…exactly how he was supposed to.  I was impressed.  He then walked across the balance beam the same way (both of these are low to the ground).  Then he happily jumped on the trampoline, but we couldn’t get him to jump off to the mat like he was supposed to.  I don’t know if it was he didn’t understand or he just flat out didn’t want to.  He then watched some other kids jumping through hoops laid on the floor and happily did that.  I couldn’t get him to leapfrog over the beanie babies and he just looked at me like I was nuts. lol.  I wish he would have seen another kid doing it because then he might have.  He took about 3 turns on the paralel bars and balance beam, and then he saw the other kids who weren’t doing it right (climb down and just walk through the bars) and proceeded to do it that way from then on.  *sigh* We also couldn’t convince him to just jump off a platform, which I thought was sort of cute.  Instead of jumping, he would carefully sit down and edge himself down safely.  How do you tell a child whom you have worked to keep him from leaping off of things that you actually want him to leap off of something. lol.  I didn’t try too hard to get him to leap off the platform either.  bad gymnastics mama. lol.  About halfway through the class he was not interested in doing the apparatus like he was supposed to and was more interested in playing ‘tag’ with mama, playing with the ball that had found it’s way into the area, and trying to do the apparatus backwards…opposite the flow of all the other kids.  oh well.  He did a lot better than he did the last time we tried to do a class like this.  We have another kind of class on Wednesday.  Maybe he will get better at this group thing. 

edited to add:

We also learned that the “treat” of having a stamp put on your hand or foot at the end of class is not a treat for Zane.  He was not impressed.  He was downright inconsolable when we put his sock on, and we thought it was only because he didn’t want to leave.  he cried the whole way home, and when we got back into the house and took his shoes off he was obsessed with it.  We weren’t sure if he kept rubbing and showing it to us because he was trying to tell us he wanted to go back, or because he wanted it off.  I decided to get out a wash cloth and show him that it could be used to rub my foot, then asked if he wanted me to wash his foot.  He promply displayed his foot wanting me to wash it.  When I was done, he took the washcloth out of my hand and continued to clean it, checking to see if every trace of the stamp was gone before he relinquished the washcloth.  I guess he didn’t like the stamp.  We won’t make that mistake again.  lol.