Recently, I’ve noticed that not only is my lil’ Monkey getting cabin fever on the days we spend at home together alone, but I am, too.  There is only so much walking around the neighborhood, going to Target and cruising the Mall/Outlets you can do before it becomes a drag.  Not to mention, going to Target and cruising the Mall/Outlets can prove to be quite expensive.

Monkey does amazingly with other kids.  Sometimes it takes him a little while to warm up but usually not too long.  It’s the warming up to the grown ups he has trouble with most times and usually the ones he doesn’t warm up to, I can see why.  Because of this and our need for new pastures to roam, I signed us up for a Baby Signs class. 

He seems to be old enough now to actually grasp this stuff.  One of the DVDs we watch in the morning while I’m getting ready for work is the My First Signs DVD, by Baby Einstein.  At first, he was just all about the puppets.  But recently, he actually signed “Milk” and does a half-version of “More” (he clasps the fingers of only one hand and puts it into the open palm of the other).  So this was enough for me to warrant the money for a class.  That and the music class I wanted to put him in were already full (the one within reasonable driving distance anyway).

Today was our first class and it was good.  I am however worried that I’m THAT mother with THAT kid.  Lemme explain.

Brian warmed up EXTRA quick to these folks.  Not sure why but he REALLY felt at home and began grabbing at everything.  The instructor uses a bear prop which has arms that she can fit her own arms into to make it look like the bear is making the signs.  Once she was done with the lesson using BeeBo Bear, Monkey decided he wanted it.  He just got up, went over and tried to drag him back to me (the bear is quite big, bigger than Monkey himself).

Then they had this musical part with little maracas.  He did okay at first but towards the end of the song he decide he wanted MORE maracas.  And when the song ended and the other children put down their maracas, he proceeded to collect them as many as he could fit in his two little hands.  THEN he even grabbed some out of the hands of one child.  That’s where I drew the line and proceeded to yank the offending maraca out of his hand and hand it back.  That didn’t settle well for Monkey and he made a little fuss.

Thankfully, the instructor quickly started another game/lesson and Monkey was eager to listen to that one, yet still grasping about 4 maracas.  And he held onto those maracas until the end of the class.  That’s when it got UGLY.  I waited for all of the other parents to leave, partially because I knew what horrors were coming but also because we started late and I needed to pay the instructor yet for the semester.

Then the deed had to be done.  After I wrote out the check, I handed it to the instructor, grabbed everything I needed before going to Monkey.  I picked him up and had to literally yank with mighty strength to get those darned things out of his hands.  He was screaming wildly as if to say, “You will pry these maracas from my cold, dead hand, woman!”

To her credit, the instructor was very understanding about everything.  She told Monkey, “Don’t worry, we’ll play with the maracas next week!”  And I was thinking, “This is a good thing?  Please, for the love of all that his holy, keep those things out of sight!”

By the time we reached the door of the recreation center the class was held in, he had calmed down a little more.  But then the usual struggle to get in the car whilest there are any trees within viewing distance* occurred.  He wasn’t too bad about that but I was exhausted by the previous transaction.  I threw all of the crap I had to carry (diaper bag, class materials, his bear and his sippy cup) onto the grass median in the parking lot just so I could use what strength I had left to get his little butt into the car seat.

I now remember why I quit going to the mommy group at the hospital.  It’s a LOT of work.  I hoping this will get easier.  Although, I’m dreading the time during the class when the maracas come out again.  Ugh.  Maybe Mommy will have to go pee at that time and take the Maracas Snatcher with me.

*Monkey, being the nature boy that he is, LOVES trees and likes to collect their leaves.  So everytime we see a tree, he has to touch it.  I usually give him ONE leaf off of the tree to take into the car but these trees didn’t have any low lying branches where I could snatch one for him.