Hide the Puffs!

Last Tuesday, I took Lily to her first play group. It was called "Baby Rhyme and Sign", open for ages 0-2.5 years. It was a free class offered at out local library designed to encourage young children to learn simple sign language and sing. Very cool class.

I really didn't know what to expect, as far as behavior was concerned, from Lily. She isn't really old enough to be a complete disruption but I was a little afraid that she might be scared of other kids, or at least apprehensive. Definitely not the case.

There were about 20 other kids with their caregivers. Lily sat back and soaked it all in at first but when the music started, Lily was all over it. She was dancing and clapping and wanted to touch every kid that crossed her path.

During the 10 minute open reading time, she respectfully sat in my lap and read with me. Then during the 10 minute open play time, she crawled around, stole a couple toys interacted with others, learned to share a little and then played independently. I didn't have my camera, just my phone, so this was the only picture I captured:

This was taken right after the toddler whacked her in the face with a beach pail. Surprisingly, Lily didn't cry, she just gave that girl the stink eye. Oh, and the lady standing to the left, a grandma that was infatuated with the red hair. She must have asked me 30 questions about it. Lady, it's genetics, that's all I can tell you.
Little people were rummaging through my purse and Lily's Puffs, or "baby crack" as they're called, were stolen a couple of times. 

A funny thing occurred to me as I sat back and watched Lily in the group. It was one of those "holy shit" moments, yet also an indescribable feeling.... I am a mom. A mom in a group with all these other moms.
Yes, I know, this is obvious and should have occurred to me at least once over the last 11.5 months, and it has, but not like this. For some reason, I welled up with tears of joy a couple times on this day, during this 45 minutes. Not that this was the first time that I welled up with tears of joy either but for some reason it was a defining moment in my short stint with motherhood. I pinned this feeling down to "Wow, my baby is growing up and I am helping her to become a person. She's not just a baby". She was clapping and dancing and laughing with other kids, it was just so cute and amazing. I realized just how much fun I am having getting to know her.

And about those Puffs...
When I went up to the front of the room to return a toy, the facilitator of the group said to me, "I noticed you brought Puffs. You might want to hide them or even leave them in the car. They seem to be a hot commodity around here".
Rookie mistake.