Kindergym, Teeth, and Early Easter Baskets!

Now that Elias is 18 months old, there are a lot more opportunities open to him for classes through the Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District. (Of course it’s nothing compared to the three year olds…but that will come soon enough). I asked Nathan for some input on what to sign Elias up for this season. Nathan wanted Elias to take a tumbling class.  The closest thing I could find was a kindergym class. Today was our first one. Unfortunately, Elias is cutting his first canine tooth right now…so he was a tad bit grumpy. At the beginning of class, Elias seemed a bit concerned about the bouncyness of the mats and mostly just fussed if I didn’t hold him. I was a bit worried when he wouldn’t try anything….but then I found the ball pit in the back corner of the room. The kids were supposed to walk across a balance beam that was about waist high on an adult, then jump off of it into the ball pit. Elias wanted to play with the balls very badly. His first time across the balance beam was not very successful. He kept stepping off of it because he wanted me to hold him and because he wasn’t watching where he was going. I had to support all of his weight. But when we reached the end and he got to jump in the ball pit, he was a very happy camper. When his turn was over, he raced back around to the beginning and wanted to try again. By his fourth trip across the balance beam, Elias was able to walk across himself while just holding on to one of my fingers with each of his hands. We did that balance beam and ball pit about twenty times. Elias opened up a bit after that and had some fun…but I’m still looking forward to next week when he (hopefully) won’t be feeling teething pain anymore.

This evening Elias had an eventful evening as well. After going swimming and having a very fussy bath (again…due to teething) Elias got to see grandpa and grandma Bartle. They brought over his Easter basket early! Elias was very excited to see them. He got some new play-doh (perfect timing! ours is getting pretty dried out) a toy train, and some chocolate chips. When it was time for bed, Elias was sad to see them go. After we shut the door he kept saying “buh-bye” for a really long time, and he kept pulling on the door handle to try and go outside. We thought it would have warmed Grandpa and Grandma’s hearts if they could have seen it. After some tylenol and his bedtime routine, Elias is sleeping.