Art had alittle bit of a hard time.

Today I brought Art to a "ballet" class at one of our local parks. I thought it might be a fun thing, and it's just another opportunity for Art to realize he can have fun without me. Anyway, it was not smooth sailing. At first he had his usual shyness, which was no big deal. He didn't follow me out or anything, but as soon as the kids were asked about their favorite animals Art started to cry. They made some animal sounds and it got kind of loud. Art doesn't too well with loud sounds, especially when he's feeling stressed. That happened a couple more times. The room would get just a little loud and I could see his shoulders pull up and his cheeks turn red (I was watching from the door and his back was to me.) I tell you, the other kids looked really confused and the teacher tried to pat his knee or rub his back to calm him down. Then they all got up to do something and I don't remember what it was but he crumbled again, and this time he just chanted "I want Mama! I want Mama!" I ran in and pulled him out.

While I was holding him he said, while sobbing, "I want to tell you two things. They made loud sounds and I didn't like that and I wanted you look through the window for a long time and you didn't and that made me saaaaaaaaaad!" We stayed in the lobby for a while until the class came out like a choo choo train to get drinks of water. Suddenly Art said, "Maybe I could try again!" (I think he really wanted to use the drinking fountain. He loves drinking fountains.) He went back into the class and made a circle "pizza" stretch with their legs, reaching out in front of them to put on their favorite toppings. Art said, "But, Mama likes mushrooms on her pizza!" They did that for a while and then she passed around some tap shoes. Before the shoes even got to Art he started crying again. He came out and said class was too long.

It was too long for Art, mostly because he didn't get a nap today, but it wasn't that unusual for Art to react to things that way. One of the other moms asked me how old he was and when she learned he was three and a half she was surprised. She thought he was five, since he's so tall. And that's why I think things will be hard for Art. Not only is he sensitive to loud sounds and a total mama's boy, but he's big for his age and looks like he should be able to handle more than he really can.