It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A!

First of all, let's just pretend that it hasn't been a month since I posted. Deal?

Ok.

As part of our plan to start doing more stuff, Syd and I have been going to the Y daily for about 2 weeks. I get to workout and she gets to spend 1.5 hours with other kids and caregivers at no additional cost. This is amazing because the Y is so much less expensive than other gyms and the child care is not just about them sitting the kids in a room for the whole time. They read stories, they dance, they sing, they play with developmental toys, they learn letters and numbers, play with play-doh. The care-givers are all either trained teachers or nurses and are really good with the kids. It's pretty much, awesome. Plus, the interaction with other kids is good for her.

The first day, I left the area before she noticed. She cried a little but then settled down and had fun the rest of the time. I kept looking at her from the exercise room and was very happy with how she was doing. There was one point where she was playing with a toy and a boy, who had to be about 4, snatched it from her.

She punched him square in the face. *blank stare*

He gave it back to her.

I guess we can skip the, "Don't let anyone bully you" talk for now.

Day 2 did.not.go.well. She wailed the second we walked in the door and after15 minutes, they came to get me because she was completely inconsolable. I hung out with her in the room and interacted with the teachers myself so she could see that they were harmless. Day Three, we got in the door and she turned around and ran right back out. I handed her over, kicking and screaming but she settled down with only occasional outburts. Day 4 she cried for 10 minutes and was done. Day 5 she whined but didn't cry at all and had tons of fun. Yay! It's been smooth sailing ever since.

Besides that, everything is good with her. Her separation anxiety has morphed into this need to have both Brian and myself in the same room with her at all times. If he's home and she hears him downstairs, she stands at the top of the stairs and cries out to him until he comes up. If I leave the room, she cries until I come back. It's cute but it makes it hard to get stuff done. Of course we could just do what we need to do but that pathetic, whiny cry of, "Mamamamamamamamaaaaaaaaaaaaa" is hard to ignore.

These pictures were taken randomly over the last few weeks:

She likes turning every object into a hat. Most times, she insists we wear it too
The Pepsi Generation

What, you don't get this excited to go to the grocery store?