Fun day with Abuelita and space bubbles

We started this beautiful day rushing (Mom's dog, Max wanted to explore the neighborhood before he was caught and put back inside. I know he's my brother, but we had places to go!) to our make-up class at The Little Gym (will forever more be referred to as 'LG')...well, Thursday's class starts 15 min later than our reg. Tuesday class. We were right on time :)

*Note: there will not be any pictures of Abuelita today bc she hadn't had her hair appt yet. This was her choice, and I respected it. Plus, we ended up with a fantastic photographer!

Mom was able to see what the fuss over LG is all about. Mia pretty much gets to climb on anything, go anywhere and do pretty much anything she wants. EXPLORE is the name of the game. There are some 'moves of the day' that we all participate in...or not, and they give us ideas of what we can try with our tots. Mom pointed out to me that the instructor gives us pointers and doesn't direct the children at all. That's our job. She goes around and makes sure we're all spotting correctly, but really focuses on teaching us how to encourage/facilitate exploration of their surroundings and testing out their ever changing boundaries.

Speaking of boundaries...later in the day, we hopped over to the mall for some shopping and a little break in the kids play area for Mia. Hangin' out in a carseat, stroller and a dressing room is fun for only so long. I'm not sure when it began, but Mia has a thing with personal space and not wanting it to be encroached upon. Imagine that :) I remember when she was about 6 months old, a sippy cup was hurled at her head by a kid who so desperately wanted his mama's attention, and decided that was the way to go about it. When she's teething or generally not feeling well is when most of these things happen. At our 2006AM playdate a couple of weeks ago, a couple of toys were taken from her, and she rightfully got upset. Daryl and I are finding that Mia isn't a 'hey, gimme that back' kinda girl. She likes her personal space bubble (term from Lora & Becka) and please stay away, thank you very much....oh, and if you don't hurt me, than all the better.

Back to what happened and how I struggle with this challenge. A little boy (18 months vs Mia's almost 14 months), Rick, was way sweet and wanted to hang with Mia at the mall play area. He kinda got up close to her, and backed her up into a corner. Mia visibly became flustered and when he went to touch her, she looked at me for help and cried. Hard. Now, where do I come in? This is what I did. I went over and sat next to the interesting activity stuff and plopped Mia not really in my lap, just on my knee/leg and started chatting with Rick and playing with the activity thingy hopefully showing Mia that this boy was there in peace. So we all played and chatted and all was good. Then Mia wanted to explore and Rick really wanted to play with her. He's not really at an age/stage where he can understand and respect her desire for a space bubble. When she cried, he was obviously shocked. Anyway, I spotted her semi-closely and was there to mediate their play a little.

Suzy is raising Livie with a 'no hands on' policy. You don't ever put your hands on another child. I wish more mamas could be like that. Imagine the world without pushing, hitting, scratching....even harmless pets don't seem so harmless to a person that doesn't want to be pet. That's just my MSOTD (Mama Struggle Of The Day). It's a work in progress.

Yes, it's 3am and I'm here blogging. I can't sleep anymore. Actually I can once I fall asleep...ahhh the elusive 'falling asleep'. Daryl actually got home a few minutes ago. Trouble with a client's (insert tech term of your choice here). So, he fell into bed then fell asleep before his sweet head hit the pillow. I, however, have the baking bug!

~More LG snaps in the Flikr area~