Thursdays with Mama

Thursdays are my days with Sophie and we've gotten a nice routine down every week. In the mornings, after a leisurely breakfast, we go to the library for story time at 10.30. It's only a 30 minute session but there's music, singing, and props that go with the story and Sophie really enjoys it (which she shows by sitting really still in my lap the whole time-- a remarkable feat for her, hands on her own lap, transfixed by Story Time Lady). They then take out toys for the children to play with and we hang around for another 45 minutes or so, and then borrow a couple of books before we head home for lunch. Sophie takes her one nap at around 12.30 and usually sleeps till 2.00 or a little after.

And then, it's mommy group time. Since she was 5 months old, Thursday afternoons have been spent with our mommy group, which started in January as a Lamaze-organized thing. The group met through Lamaze till May and then we took a break over summer. I missed them when we were in California- even though we only met once a week, we saw our babies through some of their most important developmental milestones-- sitting up, solids, teething, crawling, standing up, etc.-- and we had all become good friends (I'd like to think so did our babies). And so when I came back in September, we all made it a point to continue meeting during our usual time. During those warmer weeks in September and October, we met at different parks around Ann Arbor, and now that it's getting cooler, our default meeting place has become the Hands-on Museum, a wonderful, wonderful space for children of all ages. Today though, we broke from our routine and met at My Urban Toddler instead, an indoor play-area for infants and toddlers in Saline, a 20-minute drive away. It's not as big as the Hands-on Museum but it was still very nice- with different rooms (like a Library, the Market, the Fire Station, Fine Arts corner, and a Kitchen) all stocked with props and playthings for the best kind of imaginative play possible. Sophie had fun pretending to cut up fruits and vegetables, pushing dolls around in baby umbrella strollers, and also discovered her musical side:



I love my Thursdays with Sophie- even through that last insane leg of my dissertation-writing, Thursdays were sacrosanct days where I did no work as long as Sophie was awake. On Thursdays, I'm all hers.