Hopscotch Day

Emma turned 18 months old on Tuesday.  It's hard to believe that she's already a year and a half old.  It's so much fun watching her grow and change everyday.  I decided on Tuesday since it was her 18 month birthday that I would take her to a kid's play place here in town called Hopscotch's.  It's perfect for kids her age.  It has a small bouncy house with a slide, a jungle gym maze with slides, lots of toys, a playhouse with dishes and pretend food and play mat floors for safety.  I was a little nervous because Emma is never around a big group of kids.  I am a stay at home mom so I'm really the only person she ever has to share her toys with.  She is always great when she is around another kid and when she sees other kids out in public but in this new setting I was a little worried.  We walked in and took off our shoes, put on our socks and I proceeded to pay to get in and as I'm standing there paying a family walks in behind us and waits in line.  This woman had a boy around the age of 6 and two twin boys that were around Emma's age.  Emma is immediately intrigued by these two sweet little boys and all of a sudden out of the blue she hits one of them on the back.  She didn't hit him hard but I still corrected her and apologized to the mom who assured me it was no big deal.  I'm sure she deals with a lot more than that having three boys! My thoughts after this incident were "OMG, if we aren't even in this place yet and she's already hitting people what is it going to be like when we get in here".  After getting in and setting my bags down we were off to explore.  Emma was bright eyes and in amazement at all the new things to play with and all of the kids running around.  She kept to herself at first but after warming up started to "talk" to other kids.  She would get right up in their space and proceed to have "conversations" with them.  Also, I should add that my daughter has a crazy ear fetish.  She has had a thing for ears since she came out of the womb.  Sometimes I am surprised I have ears left the way she pulls and tugs on my ears.  She kept going up to these kids and pulling on their ears.  I was so embarrassed.  I just nicely apologized and explained her fetish to the parents and they just giggled and thought it was the funniest thing.  Overall, she did really good.  We had a few incidents with sharing but after I corrected her each time she moved right along to another toy.  After over an hour of playing hard she was ready to go.  As in, she was at the gate to get out saying bye bye bye bye.  I am looking forward to taking her back soon.  It's just so surreal that she's old enough to play like a big girl!