Separation Anxiety

One of the things I LOVE about living in the suburbs is that there is such a wide variety of classes and activities for Charlotte*.  I was so excited for Charlotte to go to gymnastics, swimming, ballet, and any other classes we could find.  And she always seems so excited too, talking about the activity non-stop, telling everyone who will listen, practicing her moves, etc.  She was great at gymnastics, because I never left her side.  But swimming ended before it started…we got her private lessons (so that I could stay on the side of the pool with Henry, and also so I could spare the other people at the pool the horror of my bathing suit-clad body), and she wouldn’t let the instructor (Tom) touch her.  We put her in the water, she got a quiver lip, and hysterically started crying.  Now mind you, I was literally 6” away from her with both legs in the water, and she was touching the side of the pool.  Oh, and Jack was having his lesson about 2 feet away from us.  Didn’t matter…she dissolved in tears and that was that.  Okay, so no more swimming.  Ballet…they don’t allow parents even near the room where the kids are; we have to stay in the waiting room, and the kids go down the hall with Miss Stephanie.  The first class was amazing…I was worried Charlotte wouldn’t want to go in, but she said “bye Mommy” and walked bravely down the hall.  When class was over she came running down the hall with a big smile on her face, hugged me and asked if I was “so proud of her” (I was!).  For days, she told me how much fun she had and showed me all of her ballet positions.  That was the last time that happened.  Now she won’t go into ballet class either.  Granted, she missed about 6 weeks when she broke her leg, but we have been back for quite a few weeks now, and the closest she came to entering that room was when they had their Christmas party and she wanted a cupcake.  And even then, she only ran in to get the food and then came right out to me.      

Our most recent adventure was going to be soccer…Jon swears she is a soccer prodigy, and I know we might be a bit biased, but she is pretty damn good!  So, as usual, we were talking about it, she was so excited, she told Henry’s physical therapist all about how she was going to kick the ball and “run so fast”.  Um, let’s just say that isn’t exactly how it happened.  After having to park about 1/2 mile away in the freezing cold weather, and manage the stroller through snow drifts, we got to the indoor field…there were about 8 other kids Charlotte’s age, and all of the moms and babies (there were lots of little siblings!) sat around the perimeter of the field.  Well, Charlotte wouldn’t go play…she would NOT leave my side or the stroller.  The coaches were as nice as can be, and tried to engage her, but every time one of them said her name, she would run and hide behind me, getting that same quiver lip.  Here are some pics of our soccer experience:

Here are all of the kids playing on the field…

Looks like fun, doesn’t it?

And this is how we spent the 45 minutes…if that face doesn’t scream “fun”, I don’t know what does!

Safety under the stroller hood!

So yeah, I’m not so sure this was a wise investment on my part.  As my mom said, "you guys have a fireplace…you could just burn your money instead!”, haha.  I think I am just going to keep going and hope that eventually she will partake in SOMETHING, anything.  At this point, I have been sitting in the waiting room at ballet with Charlotte grasping onto me for dear life for quite a few weeks, so I’m not sure when we will be reaching a turning point…but I think we will be attempting soccer again next week!  She is going to start nursery school in the not-so-distant future, so I feel like she has to start to leave my side, even briefly…especially when I am in the same room.  We’ll see how that goes…

In other news, Henry went to the pediatrician on Friday, and he is almost 17 lbs and 26.75”…that is the 50% for weight, and 75% for height (big growth spurt length-wise…probably why Jon always says it looks like I have a toddler on my lap!).  Poor guy got his Prevnar and ActHIB shots…the first time he got these vaccines he was super fussy and didn’t eat for a few days, but he seems to be handling it better this time.  Here is a picture of our big boy all clean and cozy after bath time :)

 

We also started sleep training with Henry a few days ago…after a few nights of little to no sleep, we knew we needed to do something.  The pacifier disappeared, and we decided I wouldn’t be rolling him over 600 times a night…he can roll both ways now, so if he rolls and doesn’t like his position, he can change it!!!  The first night he fussed at 1am, 2am, and then from 4-5:30am or so…not much full out crying, mostly just fussing and grunting. Not too awful.  And since then he has gotten better (except last night we didn’t let him fuss because I was worried he might not be feeling 100% after the shots).  We are still feeding him between 5-6am, but I am hoping that we can eliminate that feeding soon and enjoy a full night of sleep! :)

Oh, and the physical therapist told me I had to start getting him to lay on his belly and lean on his forearms…because of the tort, he doesn’t like to do this.  Well, I figured out how to get him all the way up on his hands, although I’m not sure the professionals would recommend this method!  I simply put Yo Gabba Gabba on, put him in front of the television, and this is what he does…

 

That’s my boy!

And I wanted to share this gem…I love Charlotte’s attitude in this picture.  It is because, once again, I was paying attention to Henry.  The nerve! :)

 

I also forgot to put this picture up when I posted about Disney on Ice the other day…here is a cute picture of Henry and Daddy enjoying the show!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Xoxoxo

*Well, I guess that is a silly statement…they have those classes in the city too, but they are just so incredibly expensive that I couldn’t rationalize paying thousands and thousands of dollars for a class that was going to last a few weeks (especially if Charlotte refused to participate!).  Here we pay a fraction of the price; for example, I paid over $1,000.00 in the city for Charlotte to attend the same music class we just paid $200.00 for BOTH Charlotte and Henry to attend!  Literally, the same class…same cd, same songs, everything.