My, How Time Flies

Today, Daniel started Level 4 in Gymboree. Technically, Level 4 is for toddlers between 16 and 22 months of age. Daniel may be a month short, but he makes up for it in energy and enthusiasm. We hadn't seen Eva, the teacher, since way back in Level 2. At that time, Daniel was barely crawling, let alone walking and climbing. Eva had been our teacher from the beginning, when Daniel was just 8 weeks old and HATED being placed on his belly. This is what Daniel looked like when he first started Gymboree, in August 2007:


I used to dread tummy time in Gymboree. Eva would drag out the mirror, everyone would place her baby around it (on their bellies, of course), and Daniel would inevitably lay his head down and drool. For a long time, I worried that he would be delayed in his crawling because he spent so little time on his belly. I felt guilty that I didn't practice the 2 to 3 minutes at a time, five times a day of tummy time that the "experts" recommended. But you know what? Daniel eventually figured it out on his own. All of that worrying for nothing. I guess that was just the beginning of this motherhood gig. But I digress.

As soon as he spotted Eva today, his whole face lit up. He remembered her! I was so happy at the end of class because Daniel was definitely ready to move up. While most of the other toddlers were a couple of months older, Daniel had no trouble keeping up with them on the equipment. He climbed up and down the ramps, joined a little girl on the see-saw, and crawled back and forth on his favorite wavy slide. The best part of class was during parachute time. The other children were sitting on the parachute, delighting in the bubbles that Eva blew down to them. Daniel managed to sneak away and climb up on the trampoline. He then turned to face the group (with bubbles stuck to his hair, I might add) and demonstrated his ear-splitting shriek. It was as if he were pleading, "Please pay attention to ME!" He's definitely my son!