Spending time with Lucy

Now that Emily is in pre-kindergarten five days a week, I'm having more time with Lucy and loving every minute of it. Emily and I still have an afternoon together each week but schedules work out such that I have a full day with Lucy on Wednesdays.

I pick Lucy up when Erin drops Emily off at pre-K and then we head off to the store or to meet Grandpa (Ban-ha) for a late breakfast and eventually we end up at The Little Gym (TLG) for an 11:30 class. This class at TLG has all 2.5 year olds up to 3 years. It's the last of the parent-child classes and the focus is on the kids playing independently with the adults in the room or even in the outside observation area. So since I had 45 minutes to sit and watch Lucy play, I amused myself by taking pictures of her today.

What's interesting is that she insists before we go that she doesn't want to be there but then has a wonderful time. She'll tell me that Mr. Andy (the teacher) is not her best buddy ("Ban-ha my best buddy," which melted his heart) and then told me with great delight that Mr. Andy is her best buddy.

As with all 2.5 year old children, you never know if they're going to cooperate or not but she has been doing really well at staying with the children and following Mr. Andy's instructions. (I really believe that Andy is a child whisperer as he can get them to do virtually anything. Whenever he gets married and has children, he's going to be an awesome dad.)

Anyway, what following is a series of pictures -- somewhat fuzzy because I took them with my cell phone -- of Lucy (in the green shirt with the peach-colored flower on it) and her little friends enjoying their time at The Little Gym this morning.

The classes are much more about socialization and sharing at this age rather than tuning them for gymnastics competition. The kids learn how to climb safely and take turns and we've really enjoyed our time there. I love it because I get to spend time with each of the little girls (Emily doesn't go any more) playing, cuddling and rough housing. It's really a blast.

Last Thursday I took Lucy to get a haircut. Her hair is all kinds of curly and we weren't sure what the stylist could do but they said they could get rid of the dry wispy ends and it would look less messy.
 Lucy: "where we going?"
Me: "we're going to get you a haircut!"
Lucy, breaking into a big grin and her mouth forming an O and holding up four pudgy fingers: "Oh! That means I'm four! I'm not two anymore!"

Apparently in her mind only four year olds get haircuts so getting a haircut automatically meant that Lucy was now four rather than two.  It cracked me up. How adorable is that. I explained that she was still two and she seemed fine with it.

I treasure these times with the little girls and I know I'm the luckiest grandma in the world.