Great Day

Today was a great day.

I took Daniel and Annabel to “Family Preschool Storytime” at the public library.  There is a wonderful children’s area with fun puzzles, games, a coloring table, toys, and of course, tons of books.  Every Wednesday morning, they have a storytime program which consists of 30 minutes of crafts and 30 minutes of storytelling with music.  I usually just take Daniel.  It’s our one-on-one “Mommy and Bean” time.  Annabel stays home with her “GG.”  Today GG was sick, so I decided to brave the storytime by myself with two kiddies.  It’s not that I’m a big wimp, but Daniel and Annabel are at two tough ages.  Daniel does not like to sit still and sometimes has a tendency to run away from me.  Annabel wants to be out of the stroller, but she can’t be left alone for a second.  My fear is that I have to run after one child while I leave the other one unattended.  I also really enjoy the one-on-one time with Daniel.  It’s a treat for me and he loves all the undivided attention. Today, with both my kiddies in tow, I was a little nervous.  But it was GREAT.

Annabel was so pleasant in the stroller.  I gave her board books to “read” while Daniel and I made a fun ocean scene during craft time.  We laughed while Daniel glued on starfish googly eyes and colored the ocean green and blue.  Annabel even helped color the starfish bright pink.  They loved it.  Then, during storytime, something amazing happened.  For the VERY FIRST TIME, Daniel walked to the front of the room and sat down right in front of the librarian.  Annabel sat on my lap and I watched Daniel as he listened intently to each story.  Then, he participated in a sign language poem, shouted out colors during a game, and played with egg shakers and scarves during the song portion.  From time to time, he would turn and look for me.  He would give me a BIG smile and then turn around and continue.  I almost teared up.  I was having so much fun watching him.  For the very first time, I could picture him in preschool.  I often wonder if he’s ready to go into a three year old program.  I felt like I was experiencing it.  Just last week at the library, Daniel would listen to five minutes of a story and then run down an aisle of books or try to sit in a chair.  He was so distracted.  But today, he was a new kid and it was so cool to watch.  It was just GREAT.

Later in the afternoon, I took Annabel to a follow up appointment at the ophthalmologist.  Annabel had eye surgery in February to unplug a clogged tear duct.  It was non evasive surgery, but she did have to go under.  It was scary.  She came out of it with flying colors, but then I kept noticing that her eye was still watering.  The doctor said it would just work itself out, but we should definitely come back in three months for a follow up.  We went in today and the doctor gave us two thumbs up.  Annabel’s eye looks fine and we would just have to do an annual check up.  That felt GREAT.

Then we came home and Annabel WALKED.  She decided TODAY was the DAY and she just walked across the room.  The light bulb went on; she found her equilibrium; and she said “Okay, no more crawling. I’ll walk now.” Annabel is almost 16 months old so she is definitely a late walker.  Because she is my second child I wasn’t really worried.  With Daniel, forget it! I worried every time he was a day late on any milestone. I was wondering when she was going to get the hang of it, but I wasn’t concerned.  For the past month, she has only walked two or three steps before she fell down to crawl.  But today, she WALKED! 

It was a GREAT day.