Social Butterfly

On Wednesday mornings, Jude and I pack up and head down to SLO for a mom's class. This class was my saving grace during some very hard weeks during Jude's second month. I look forward to them each week, but know that one of these days Jude will take an extended and much needed morning nap and we'll have to say goodbye to class. In the meantime, I am finding it quite amusing that Jude loves the class as much as I do.

Last week, I put him in his car seat knowing that he was going to get hungry on the thirty minute drive to SLO. Part of the class includes weighing the baby, feeding, and weighing again to see how much milk they are taking at a given feed. It is really encouraging when you realize that even though they are eating quickly, they are getting enough food. With that said, I always try to bring him to class hungry. With about ten minutes left of the drive (Cuesta Grade), he starts to complain in the back seat. I try to soothe him with my sweet words and quickly move on to trying to distract him with silly songs - nothing works. He wants food and he wants it now!

We park and I take him out of his car seat and give him a pacifier so that I can get him weighed without him crying the entire time. As we enter class, there are a few hellos from moms already having arrived. Everyone is chatting and having a good time. Jude spits his pacifier out and just stares...and then he smiles. I should have known then but it took me to the end of class to fully understand the implications of that smile.

He went to scream crying with real tears to giggling and looking around at everyone within about a one minute period. I was able to undress him, weigh him and re-dress him without so much as a fuss. I laid him on his back and he would arch around to look at the babies sitting across from him. He loves to stand, so I helped him stand and he just smiled and giggled at everyone. Throughout the class he giggled, laughed, talked, and smiled atveveryone. He had a great time.

I tried to feed him, but he basically looked me straight in the eye and said, "Listen, Mom, I'm here with all my friends and we're having such a good time. Can we please do this later?" Umm...really?!? I thought you loved to eat? I thought you were screaming your head off a half hour ago begging for me to pull the car over and feed you? "Mom, that was before I saw my friends." Sorry, my bad.

Anyways, he did the same thing today at class and I have come to the conclusion that our weigh ins have likely come to an end since he hardly eats with so many fun people around. It is cute to watch him light up around people and enjoy them so much. I never thought a chubby kid like Jude would put anything over food, but apparently social time ranks higher.

I'm really enjoying getting to know our son.