Story Time

I was so excited to find out there is infant story time at the Athens library.  When I was a nanny last year I took the little boy to toddler story time every week and could not wait to have my own child to take.  Now Eli is here and of course I haven’t been able to take him because he is too little.  Going to story time and then reading books together in the library afterwards always made me feel like “me” again since I wasn’t in the classroom teaching anymore.  Now that I am a Mama I really feel like “Jen the teacher” is the old me and I miss her.  Luckily I came across some info that the other library offers story time for infants.  I was practically counting down the days until we could go.  I was so excited because…

1. I’d be getting out of the house

2. I would meet others Mama’s

3. Eli would socialize with other babies (God knows he needs it since we are always in the house together!  Surely he is sick of playing with me!)

4. I would get to feel like I am at “school” and remember there is more to me than being just Eli’s Mama

The big day finally arrives and of course Eli decides he doesn’t need a nap that day.  He woke up at 7:00 and didn’t take a nap all day.  I had a really bad feeling he’d be a real crab once we got there and it wouldn’t be fun at all.  Oh quite the contrary! 

There were only 4 Moms and babies there.  Wanna know why?  Oh because the rest of the babies in the world take afternoon naps!  :) Anyhow…

The 4 of us greet each other and meet the librarian.  She was sweet as can be of course.  She starts story time with some fun music and finger plays and then starts to read.  The two 8 month old boys were sitting on their Mama’s laps and the 3 month old baby girl was laying on her belly completely engaged.  Want to know what Eli was doing? Let’s see… first he threw up all over the carpet and proceeded to crawl through it.  There was no garbage can so he somehow managed to get a hold of the wipes I used and smeared the spit up all over himself and the carpet again.  Finally I get him settled and he sits on my lap nicely.  I was so excited!  Oh yah that lasted for about 10 seconds.  Eli’s attention was everywhere but on the librarian or me.  Both of us are singing and having so much fun and all the while Eli is crawling up my chest and over my shoulder.  He’s playing with my hair and babbling nonstop.  He had absolutely no interest in what we were doing at all!  It was so cute and he got a lot of attention for it.  The other moms just smiled and laughed.  I am glad he wasn’t a distraction but on the other hand I wanted him to be engaged like the other babies.

After story time was over the librarian brought out some toys and then Eli was super excited.  He played with the babies and had a blast.  I got to chat with the Moms and I too had a nice time. So all and all it was a good experience and we will go back. Maybe after enough repetition he’ll get the hang of story time.  Or maybe not!

When I got home and shared my little adventure with Milan his comment was “Oh he sounds like me when I am in a meeting for work.  I can’t sit still and I’m always looking around the room.”  Gee go figure.  Eli is doing another one of the things his Tata does.  Like Father like son.  I can just hear the teacher at parent teacher conferences someday.  “Mrs. Hayden, Eli is a very sweet boy but he sure does have a lot of energy.  He has a hard time staying in his seat.  The funny thing is though he always knows what we are doing and talking about when I call on him.  I guess he is paying attention even though his body is constantly on the go!” 

Things could always be worse! :) I so enjoy watching Eli’s personality develop.  He is a piece of work that is for sure!  He was up for 12 straight hours that day and kept going strong.  I thought for sure he’d take a good nap this morning after such a long day yesterday.  Nope, as I type this I am watching him in his crib.  He slept for a total of 5 minutes and is now crawling around playing with his turtle.  At least I got a little break! :)