About a month ago, I signed Amelia up for a few classes at a little gym in town. My reasoning for doing this was two-fold. First, I thought it was about time that little Miss Priss was exposed to some socialization with peers her own age rather than always being surrounded by grown-ups. Though, to hear her talk these days, you would not think you were dealing with a two year old, but rather a full grown adult inside a two year old's body. With a twinge of a British accent to boot, thanks to her obsession with Peppa Pig. Secondly, I thought it was time to incorporate a few activities into her schedule which required her to get out of the house - one outing with her Nana and Papaw a week, and one outing with me on Saturdays.
Now, we are one full month into these classes and I have been BLOWN away by witnessing my shy little flower bloom into a confident and brave girl who lives and breathes for music class and gym class.
In music class she learns about the sounds that different instruments make, fun new songs with lots of hand motions, and she gets to dance to music with scarves. During the week of our vacation, I was able to take Amelia to music class myself (this is usually the class that her Nana takes her to) and witnessed her be the quiet leader of the group of kids. One of the activities involves listening to the teacher play a note on her Ipad - either a full note, a half note, or a sixteenth note - and the two year olds have to determine which note it is and run to the wall that shows the picture of it. Amelia knew the answer EVERY. SINGLE.TIME. None of the other kids had a clue. Heck, her musically-challenged mother wasn't even sure of the answer sometimes. But Amelia knew the answer and I stood back watching her run from wall to wall, beaming with pride while a gaggle of adorable blond toddlers followed her lead. It was a very proud mama moment as her teacher, Miss Julie, kept looking at me with a glance that said "Did you know she was this smart?
In gym class, she is advancing her motor skills by climbing jungle gyms, jumping on trampolines, and swinging from various things- this week even a trapeze! When we first started gym class, my sweet girl was painfully shy about putting herself out there and trying the activities. She didn't like when the teacher called her name and asked her to do something in front of the other kids. She was scared to try a lot of the activities during free play and tended to be the kid who picked up the stray balls that popped out of the ball pit and put them back in. Yep, she was the kid who tidied up the ball pit instead of doing cannon balls into it. Fast forward to this past weekend's gym class. When the teacher asked her to come up and do the handstand activity, she bounded right up to her spot immediately. Later, when the teacher, aka Mr. Bill, put together a trapeze swing and asked for the first volunteer, my jaw dropped to the ground when shy little Amelia jetted over to him, actually almost cutting off another little boy who was headed over too. After her turn on the trapeze, she ran over to the highest jungle gym in the room, climbed up to the top, and exclaimed, "Mr. Bill! Mr. Bill! Look at me!" Not only is her confidence growing by leaps and bounds, but her personality as a teacher's pet is starting to shine through as well. I guess she is her mother's daughter after all!
Now that our girl is exuding confidence thanks to her new classes, I'm seeing that confidence show up in other areas of life. Take for instance when she joined me in the dressing room at Old Navy the other day and stared at her reflection in the mirror. As she looked at herself, she declared over and over again, "You're so pretty!".
And then there was the other night when we were laying in bed talking and she snuggled up to give me a great big hug. Before I could even commend her for such a sweet gesture, she piped up with her own sentiment, "Awww, I'm so sweet."
Confidence. Check.
Modesty. Needs Improvement.
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