Go, Hadley Go! Go, Hadley Go!

Hadley and I had our first experience at a little establishment called MyGym yesterday evening (GASP!  You've never been to MyGym?!?!?!  What kind of parent are you, anyway, Callie?). 

This was the scene as Hadley and I entered.

It's like Heaven to a 4 year old, right?  What could possibly be cooler than this?  Do you see Hadley waaayy back there?  She's in the red sweatshirt climbing up a ladder.  She's about to get into a huge pool of balls.  Oh, how I miss being able to get to play in that.  And oh, how I hoped so badly that Hadley would need me to come and rescue her so I could do a big canon-ball jump into that pool.  One day, we will have that in our home.  I will never not think thousands of colored balls in a big pool is not super fun. 

So this was for a birthday party for one of Hadley's classmates.  Next time Hadley is invited to a birthday party, I'm not telling her about it until 5 minutes before we leave.  Hadley knew about this party for about 15 days before it happened, and EVERY DAY we had to discuss when it was, what we would do, who would be there.  And my favorite?  Whether or not I would TALK while I was there. 

"Mama, are you sure you have to stay at the birthday party?"

"Yes, Hadley.  I am pretty sure I'm supposed to stay."

"OK, but can you not talk too much?"

"Yes, Hadley.  I will stand in a corner and not say a word." 

It's what I do anyway.

Note that these kids have no socks on.  That is the rule to prevent slipping and sliding as they run amok in this play area.  This was quite helpful for me because earlier this week, Hadley was telling me about one of her classmates.  We'll call him Bud because I'm feeling like a Huxtable.  Here's a conversation that Hadley told me about Bud earlier this week:

"Mama?  I have to tell you something that I'm shy about."

"OK."

"Bud doesn't have 10 toes."

You know what I did?  I started laughing.  And I couldn't stop.  I was laughing so hard I was crying.  And Hadley was not impressed.

"Mama, it's not funny."

Anyway, Bud was at the party and I happened to check to see that he in fact has all his toes.  I'm not sure where Hadley got this information from, but I believe this is not the last thing I will be completely confused about when she talks about her friends.

Here is the highlight of the evening.  For me, anyway.

It turns out that I probably didn't need to stay for the party.  The thing is, though, that watching Hadley in this kind of situation is fascinating.  As long as I can sneak a peak into her social life, I'm going to do it. 

On an etiquette note, as we were driving over to the party, Hadley said to me: "Mama, I'm not gonna pick my nose at the birthday party because it's not nice."

"That's good, Hadley.  I'm glad to know that."

"Yea.  It's not nice, and I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings."

Right, because picking your nose is truly harmful to others.  Going around telling people that you know a kid that doesn't have 10 toes?  That doesn't do any damage at all.