Monday, September 26 (day 89/365)

This week, I snuck out of work long enough to take Phoebe to baby class.  Our new class is very different from our old one.  In our Wednesday class, at least half of the babies are pretty active so Phoebe blends a little better.  In our new Monday class, Phoebe is by far the most mobile baby.  I think that a lot of the other babies (and moms) just aren't sure what to make of her.  The pictures on this post are from class and you'll see that all of the other babies in the background are sitting calmly with their moms.  Phoebe, on the other hand, is tearing around the middle of the circle, stealing toys and stepping on babies.  That's right.  She actually stepped on another baby's head ... twice ... not my proudest parenting moment.  At the same time, I feel responsible for the first head-stepping-on, but the second?? ... I mean if someone stepped on your head, would you not get out of the way before it could happen again?

In our Wednesday class most of the parents are used to active babies, so we just all pitch in with whichever baby/babies is/are closest to us.  We're often picking up and redirecting other people's kids or breaking up mini-baby traffic jams.  In the new class, it seems like a lot of parents are quite sure what to do, so they just sit there while Phoebe mauls their kid.  I spend a lot of time running around the circle behind Phoebe apologetically.  The other parents are really nice, but I think it will take us a while to feel like we're part of the group.  Towards the end of class, one of the moms looked at me sympathetically and said "my first baby is like that".  I remarked that she was pretty brave to have a second.  She then pointed out that her older kid was almost 5 years older than his little sister. 

We do serve a purpose in our new class.  The topic on Monday was baby proofing and the teacher told the parents that a good way to see what you need to baby proof is to get down on your hands and knees and crawl around the room.  Then she added "or you could have Kate and Phoebe over for a play date". 

Look mom, all these kids are sitting in a circle!  So much easier to figure out which toys to steal when I can see them all at once!