Music class

Last fall I signed Kinley up for music class at the Music Factory & I was SO excited to see what she would do in a class with other kids her age.  I was also pretty pumped to be doing our first "activity" together (major bonding time with my peanut)!

 

I left the first class feeling a little unsure of my decision.  Kinley just sat on my lap looking at all the other kids, no smile. ever.  To be fair, she was crawling but not walking yet so I don't think there was much incentive for her to get off my lap and socialize.  This continued for the next few classes and I wondered if I was just wasting my time but the teachers assured us that even though most kids are not participating, they are watching and learning all the time.

I gave them the benefit of the doubt and we kept making the trek to the other side of town every Thursday evening.  (Driving 20 minutes to the other side of town & 20 minutes back every Thursday got old real quick especially after working all day.  I soon realized that my mom had driven that route most nights of the week for our dance classes and I'm so thankful for that.  So now I've resigned to the fact that I'm becoming a mommy taxi and it will only get worse but that comes with the "job.")

 

Anyway, after a few weeks we had a small breakthrough moment - Kinley clapped during the welcome song & put her hand in the air for the "choo choo" part of the song!  Proudest mom ever! (ok, a little exaggeration but I was still proud).  It finally hit me that even though she wasn't acting like she loved being at class, she really did enjoy it and definitely was learning!

It became a little joke between the teacher and I that we were going to get "serious Kinley" to smile before the session was over.  I gave it another week and we actually got a smile and giggles out of her!

 

From then on, it seemed like every week she did something new.

 

One evening she got off my lap during instruments time and crawled over to the daddy/baby next to us. 

Wow, a little independence! 

 

Another week she knew to start bouncing on my lap before the song started.  She really did remember what were doing every week!

 

And my proud mommy moment came when the teacher said, "now tap your feet" and she watched intently and tapped her feet like the teacher. 

She's focusing on the teacher & following directions!

This might all sound boring but I love watching her learn and grow!

We had tons of fun singing and playing instruments together during the past few months but at 27 weeks pregnant, I was ready to be done.  Not only did we sing, but we got up and danced, hopped, and twirled around the room and that got harder every week with my growing belly.  It was probably my best workout of the week, ha!

 

We decided not to sign up for Spring session since we're going to be a little busy but hope to start again in the Fall.  I also want to start Kinley in a mommy-and-me gymnastics class so I think I'm going to have to decide how many activities a 2 year old really needs.  Haha, am I really becoming that mom already?!

 

And I can't end the post without highly recommending a music class (I think they have Musikgarten-type classes nationwide).  I feel like Kinley learned so much and got a lot of interaction with kids her age.  (No, this is not a paid advertisement, I just loved it!)

I can't wait to sign baby #2 up next year!