Mia the Monkey

she slid

Yesterday morning, we met our friends form Little Gym, Julia & Sydney, at Capital Gymnastics for open play. There were about 10 kids and their caretakers, but don't worry, CG had two huge rooms of equipment to play on and with. They had a long trampoline (jump track), an inflatable monster truck to jump in, hula hoops, slides, a teeter totter, a smaller round trampoline, bars and beams. It was great! Since this was open play and not an actual class, I'm still not sure how the class is run, so we're going to check that out. The instructor that supervised the class was very sweet and a little on the pregnant side, so I'm not sure she would be teaching when Mia would be ready to join...after her session at Little Gym ends. Oh, and CG runs month to month, so there isn't a great investment. Mia's favs were the trampoline, hula hoops and to hang from the bars with her pal Sydney like the little monkeys they are!

Playing dress-up with Niles

Then we went to Ready Set Play to meet our friends Amy & Livie (Livie's daddy, Tim, came, too). When it was Livie's birthday last month, Mia's gift to Livie was a couple of passes to Ready Set Play. Amy invited us to join in the fun. It had been close to a couple of months since we've been there, and Mia could hardly wait! At one point, when getting on a jumper, Mia turned around and said 'Mama, no'. I wasn't sure what she meant, but when I tried to join her on the jumper, she turned around and rather emphatically said, 'Mama, NO'. Oh, I was to let her go through the maze, climb up the steep rungs and slide down the slide all by herself. Um, ok. I hung back and watched while my little 21 month old ran the course all by herself. She came out with this huge smile on her face and clapping. She was very proud of herself. In went my baby and out came my little girl. A very bittersweet moment :) We all jumped and played around for about an hour and a half, then a very sweaty snapper walked to the front, grabbed my shoes and said 'bye bye' to Mrs. Laura. I guess it was time to go :)

After a fabulous nap, Mia helped me sweep the kitchen and do some laundry. She helps sort, hands me the stuff to go in the washer, and pushes stuff into the dryer. She's a great little helper. I think the funniest thing she did today was after dinner, Daddy, Mia and I walked down to the mailbox. Mia received a little thank you note from her friend, Phoebe. The note card featured a glittery, old fashioned ice cream soda on pink paper. Mia LICKED the card and said, Mmmmm cream'. She actually liked the ice cream!!! It was all wet by the time she gave it back to her daddy. :)

red tube slide