Monday, September 11, 2006

Story Time

Today Sam and I joined our friends, Courtney and Eve, at the public library for Story Time. We approached the room as Over-Exuberant Whiney Leader ushered us in. She was holding a stuffed monkey which immediately caught Sam's interest. "We have stuffed monkeys. This is good," I thought as we found our seats on the floor. We all sat in a big circle and I quickly took inventory of the other babies and Mommies. I didn't find any green snotty-nosed babies, so I relaxed a little. I wasn't sure of the Story Time protocol so, as Sam wished, I let him loose to crawl around and explore a bit. Over-Exuberant Whiney Leader sat with Stuffed Monkey at the front of the room and started baby introductions, followed by ages. When my turn came to introduce Sam, I pointed at him from across the room as he tried to accost Stuffed Monkey from Over-Exuberant Whiney Leader. Eve had followed suit and Courtney and I were the only moms in the room not holding our sweet ones quietly in our laps. Over-Exuberant Whiney Leader told Sam and Eve, "Story Time is more fun if you're sitting in Mom's lap so she can bounce you." She must have thought that Courtney and I are bad at following rules and decided to inform the babies. They nodded a reply and quickly crawled back over to us and sat down after giving us a firm look and a "tsk tsk."
After the introductions, Over-Exuberant broke into the "Hello" song which to which everyone happily followed along. Courtney and I mumbled a few words a second or two late and tried to look like we weren't the slacker moms who waited a full 11 months to bring our kids to Story Time, ohmygod we suck and should be ashamed of ourselves what were we thinking?!

The rest of the 20-minute session was fun, even if Over-Exuberant whined the stories with a high-pitched drawl that was sure to drive me to a migraine. Sam finally settled down in my lap, mouth open, occasionally pointing his chubby finger at items of interest. Stuffed Monkey was brought back out to lead the Moms in a follow-along bounce and lift song. I heaved my 27-pound behemoth son into the air with the grace of a Rhino, and thankfully that song didn't last long. The finale was when Over-Exuberant tossed stuffed animals out to the antsy crowd and blew tiny bubbles all around the room. At this point, all the Moms let their babies go so Courtney and I figured it must be ok. Sam chased a few bubbles before spotting a little girl across the room holding a stuffed dog. He scrambled over to her and wrestled it out of her arms, much to her dismay. I wasn't sure how to react to this situation, as both me and the other mom were well aware both kids are too young to understand the concept of sharing. Regardless, I could feel her instinctive defenses for her child rise up as I wrenched the dog away from Sam and gave it back to the little girl. It's amazing how we want to protect our children from the most benign acts even if we know our own would more than likely act the same way to another child.

Story Time was in all, a success. Sam enjoyed the time, as did I. Hopefully Courtney and Eve will join us again next week to listen to Over-Exuberant Whiney Leader read us stories and blow soap all over us. We can't wait!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I especially admired the random soapy bubble halo. Bubbles look good on you, Shan!
I'm glad we made it! And NEXT time we'll be better mommies -- now that we're aware of the "bouncing baby lap" protocol.

Sunshine & Bubbly Hair,
Courtney