Moving on up

I am not sure if I have mentioned this before or not but a few months ago I enrolled Aniston in a weekly class at Gymboree Play & Learn. My neighbor, Lindsey, told me how wonderful the class was & how much Molly loved it. So Aniston & I went for a free class & decided to join. Aniston really seemed to like Gymbo {the clown} & the class. Mommy loved the free Gymbucks & coupons she received in the mail for Crazy 8 & Gymboree. But that is a whole different story. Anyways where was I? Aniston was in the age group of 16 - 22 months {she was 20 months when we joined} and she was the tallest {or at least I think} in her class. She was definitely bigger then most of the kids which led to trouble. I had to keep a very close eye on her at all times. Our very last class we had to leave because she was not being nice & time out was not working. {Did I mention Grammie & Grampy were in town to watch all of the action? All while skyping with Daddy on my cell none the less.} I had been looking forward to moving her into the next class because I figured she would do much better with the older kids. For one she wouldn't be taller then all of them & she would want to watch what they did & follow along. Also I think she would be challenged with the activities rather then just strictly playing. Well I was right. Today we had our first class with the 22 - 26 month old kids & Aniston was AMAZING! I wish I would have pushed to move her into the next class earlier. In her class today they did flash cards, counted, jumped, & pretended to be cats. I felt like Aniston was truly learning today instead of just playing. I now wonder if that was another part of the problem in the other class - she wasn't being challenged? We have been counting & working on flash cards for awhile & Aniston always does really well. In fact she is learning the alphabet now & is able to recognize some letters on her own. It was nice for Mommy too because I was able to let her go off on her own a little. She spent most of the free play time hugging Gymbo & following the big kids. We did have an {minor} issue with her sharing the rocking horse but really at this age what kid is good at sharing? I am so happy that things went so well today. I know that if Aniston starts to behave as she did at the end of her last class I will definitely push for her to move up early. I actually can say I can not wait for her next class which is not usually how I feel. But unfortunately we have a few months until Molly will move up into our class so Lindsey & I can have some quality Momma time to chat & by then we will both have 2 kids in tow.