Day 227: Raising hell at Gymboree

I took Maddie to her first Gymboree class yesterday and much to my shock and delight she seemed to like it! It's basically just a room full of babies singing songs and clapping and blowing bubbles and working on milestones. I did the singing, clapping, blowing bubbles. Maddie was supposed to do the milestones work but - surprise, surprise - she chose not to. While other babies diligently tackled the task of crawling through tunnels, Maddie stood there and happily screeched at the top of her lungs. I got a glimpse of my future child and I can only say that I apologize in advance to any and all of her future teachers. She is a total disruption already! It was actually one of the most hilarious moments of my career in motherhood thus far: Every time she screamed the other babies would all stop and stare at her, kind of confused and horrified at the same time. She in turn looked around at all of them as if to say, "Why are you all just sitting around? Let's kick this party into high gear!" I don't know how I created such a little monster. Gymboree is actually a really cool program, if you can stand the fact that the instructor has to turn everything - and I mean everything - into a song... "Let's pick up the rattles, let's pick up the rattles, let's pick up the rattles, and put them in the box!" "Has anyone seen my pencil? Has anyone seen my pencil? Has anyone seen my pencil? I don't know where it's gone!" This is probably really fun for babies, but for me it was mildly nauseating by the end. But then, I suppose I'm not the target audience anyways.

In other developments, Maddie now refuses to anything but stand at all times; she considers it a complete indignity to be asked to sit down or - god forbid - to lie on her back. She'll reach her little hands out to you when she's sitting down and you'll think, "Aww, how sweet, she loves me!", but in fact she's just wanting to use you as leverage. As soon as you put your hands out she grabs hold and hauls herself up to standing, locks her knees and looks very pleased with herself. Getting her sitting again becomes a feat of physical strength. I just get the feeling this girl is going to be something of a hellraiser as she grows. I hope I'm up to the task!