Play Date, Successful; Baby Yoga, What a Disaster.....

Ivan and I had a very busy weekend:
Yesterday (Saturday), we went on a play date with Daria and Karin. Since it was raining, we met at Karin's house. It was really nice. In addition to their children (Bella and Seger), Karin invited another mom, Becky, and her son Mateo.

It was really nice. I had a great time, finally getting to know some moms in the neighborhood (did I write about meeting them on the playground? If not, I should record that as well). Ivan also had a great time getting to play with other kids. I've noticed he needs to learn to stand his groundaround other kids. Since he's not around kids often, he doesn't really know what to do when other kids are more forward and, I don't want to say aggressive or forceful, but, I guess, proactive, would be a good word. He doesn't really know what to do if other kids are in his "personal space" or are going after things he's playing with. I guess he'll learn.

Then he lost interested in playing with other kids and toys, because he noticed the cats. Karin has two cats that were lounging around, doing cat-things. He was mesmerized by them. He went up to them, saying "mews, mews," and was touching them and petting them. He was really enthralled by them.

I was surprised that he knew they were "mews, mews." I don't think he's even been around a cat before so how did he know what they were? Was it from books?

Yesterday afternoon, we went to the playground, but no one was there so we swung by ourselves. We had fun. He wanted to swing on the big swing in my lap. I guess Andy did that with him last weekend. It was fun.

Today:
First, Ivan, Mariposa, my mom and I went for an early morning stroll. Then Ivan and I went to Takoma to meet Lisa at a local playground before heading to Baby Yoga class. The playground was fun. There were other kids there (both Lisa and I got the sense that the group of parents who were there knew each other and were all buddied up. They looked very Takoma-ish.) Both Ivan and Ramon had fun on the playground. It had different equipment than the playground near me. Ivan particularly liked the stairs and the slide.


Then we went to yoga. This proved to be a bit of a disaster. I've been trying to come to this class for months. I really wanted to try it out to see what it was all about. But Ivan had other ideas.

We got there. There were about 6-8 other kids. They've all been taking that class for a while so they knew what to expect and how to behave. But both Ivan and Ramon were into doing their own thing. It was kind of funny.
After maybe 10 minutes of playing along with class and following exercises (toes to the nose, extend your arm, make I love you sign, etc....) Ivan decided he had enough and got up to walk around the room and explore. He was particularly fascinated by the door and its door knob, windows, blinds and heating vents. Then he kept going to this column in the middle of the room that was covered in mirrors. One of the edges, also a plastic mirror edge, was beginning to come apart, so Ivan kept pulling on it.....

Then after some time, he decided that he was hungry. He kept looking at Lisa's sippy cup (the same nubby sippy cup we have and which he's never liked). Eventually he went into my bag to rummage through stuff. He found the dried apple package. Since we couldn't eat in the classroom, we ended up going into the hallway to eat the appples and then the cookies. We spent the remainer of the class -- probably 20 minutes -- in the hallway eating snacks. And that's how I wasted $12 on that class.

The teacher said that other kids have been coming for a while, so that's why they're better. That I should come back. But both Lisa and I decided that while it is us, the moms, who like the concept and idea of yoga for tots, that our toddlers would benefit more from a more physical activity.

Next time I'll try Gymboree.

Then Ivan and I went home. At this point he had been awake without a nap for some six hours, so as soon as I put him in the car, he fell asleep. I don't think I even managed to sit in the car myself and turn it on, before he fell asleep. He slept for almost 3 hours.

In the afternoon, we went to Sanjoy and Rita's. I was really pleasantly surprised how nicely he and Maya played. Well, they didn't really play but just parallel played nicely. They did engage with one another in a very nice way.

Maya is so sweet. She seems also sweet tempered and "mila" like Ivan.

When we came home, it was almost 7 p.m. , we took a bath and went to bed!