Thursday, February 12, 2009

Lapsit

Hey, why didn't you guys clue me in to this lapsit thing? I saw Lapsit Storytime on the public library's events calendar before, but I erroneously assumed that lapsit storytime meant Thumper sitting on a lap and paying attention while a library volunteer read a story. So I never tried it figuring Thumper wasn't anywhere near ready to sit still.

Turns out it ain't just storytime! The storytime was 2 or 3 minutes on a 10-page board book, while the rest of the time was spent doing sing-alongs and clap-alongs and a free-for-all toy time. He had a blast! It took him awhile to warm up, because we've never participated in structured social activities before, but once he got the hang of it, he was all for it. I wish we'd tried a long time ago. When he was around nine months, we considered Little Gym or Gymboree, but rejected it because of the cost. This would have been the perfect alternative. Oh well.

I wasn't expecting it to be such a big production, either. I pictured 4 or 5 parents with kids on their laps sedately listening to a too-long children's book. There were 15-to-20 moms there, though, some with a couple of kids. And most of them were younger than Thumper. I was the only adult male in the room, which made me feel a little awkward, especially when a couple moms started breast feeding. I don't mind if they do it, but I always think they mind my presence in their safe mom zone. Of course, now my antisocial brain is also telling me that Thumper's pushing the upper age limit there, whatever that may be, since most were crawlers. He's the right age for Toddler Puppet Show, but he wasn't ready to sit through that yet. Maybe he would have been if he hadn't already participated in lapsit. I think both on the same day was a little much. Maybe when they kick him out of lapsit for being too old, we'll switch to puppet show.

Hooray structured social activity!

3 comments:

Surfer Jay said...

Sounds likea blast. Perhaps I shopuld suck it up and go. I also saw that at my local library. My wife pushed me to go this last Tue but I couldn't muster up the courage to go hang out with a bunch of screeming kids and house moms. Perhaps next week.

Anonymous said...

sucks being the only one in the room not lactating. i do remember those days...

She Said said...

Heh. We stopped going to the preschool story time at the library because of the stink eye the reader gave my kids for not sitting perfectly still. I even stopped giving them the double espressos before we went! Oh well... We switched to the toddler time, which they can sit through but are entirely too old for now. Oh well. Maybe when they kick us out of the toddler time we'll try the preschool version again.

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