I’ve been going to community run play events for a while now. They are once a twice a month and very close to our home. There are several childcare workers there and a lot of parents come with their kids of ages ranging from a few months like me to over two years old. It is pretty much my only interaction with other babies. I’ve cried there because I was overwhelmed by all the toddlers who were very active, sociable, and loud. But I’ve also laughed a lot too.
Today Daddy got to go with Mommy and me because of a change in his work schedule. That was good timing because today we had an athletic event. A childcare worker who specializes in exercise and movement ran the event. For the toddlers, there was a lot of running around with parents. For me and a few other babies, the parents had to carry us around for each activity. It ended up being a very good workout for Daddy.
The activities were quite advanced for me. There were different ways of moving around the room, like walking with your butt. I can’t even crawl, let alone walk, so that was a hard activity. Daddy had to do it and I was just along for the ride.
We also danced around the room, looked for different colors, and learned about proper greetings and behavior. It was a good taste of what nursery school might be like. It was a wake up call for me to see all the different skills I will eventually have to pick up.
My favorite part of the event was when we got to play with paper and tape. That teacher really knows his stuff because all of the kids loved the activity. We each had a large sheet of paper and started off with folding and pulling. Then came my favorite part: the ripping! Boy, did I enjoy that! Mommy made me laugh when she ripped the paper over and over again. We are definitely going to play with paper and make a mess at home. It was so much fun!
Then we grabbed the scraps of paper and then taped them up into balls. Mommy and Daddy thought I would be excited about the balls but I was much more entertained by the sound the tape made when being pulled. It was so funny!
Since we made a mess, we wrapped up by cleaning up our mess. The older kids were a lot faster, but I did manage to pick up a few stray scraps of paper.
It was such a fun event! Mommy and Daddy got a good workout, I had a lot of fun, and we have a bunch of fun ideas for activities to do at home. The best thing is that I didn’t cry at all today and actually enjoyed seeing all the other babies and toddlers. These are great moments for all the kids. With the pandemic, a lot of these events were cancelled completely and only recently have been slowly reopening. Normally, these events would be more frequent, but we are all grateful just to have any community activities. I’m already looking forward to the next one!