Too Much Like His Mother

On Friday the parents of Rowan's school were invited to watch the kids at their gym/movement class. Poor Rowan. The second he saw me walk into the gym his little face turned bright red (now I understand why I was teased so mercilessly for blushing when I was a kid. I wish he had been spared those genes). About one minute later he started crying, and would not be consoled. Thankfully the teachers allowed him to come sit with me, not that it helped a lot. He continued crying and said over and over "I don't want you to come." This might have puzzled most people, but I understand as preforming in front of people you know is so much harder than a roomful of strangers. I think he also likes to keep school and home separate, and when those two worlds collide it causes a bit of anxiety. Though I had told him I'd be coming, it turns out he thought I'd be standing outside the gym watching through the windows.

Rowan sat on my lap and cried off and on through the entire class--the crying most often starting back up again when he saw a kid doing something he thought was funny and he had to laugh in spite of himself.


It was still nice to see the type of thing he normally would have been doing, especially since gym is his favorite part of school. The gym teacher played the piano while the kids simply moved in various ways to the music--running, skipping, walking, hopping, etc. Each child had a newspaper they used as a prop. Sometimes they pretended to read it, sometimes they walked with it on their head, sometimes they placed it on the floor and jumped over it, etc.

Here are a couple of videos which I am posting even though they are probably only of interest to the grandparents!