Time after time

These days, it's not uncommon to find Stella standing at the door to the basement, furiously signing the symbols for "baby," "time" and "more" in rapid succession. It's pretty amazing that Stella has picked up such a wide array for sign language symbols in such a quick period of time (she probably knows well over a dozen now, with "leaf" and "tree" being new just in the last day or so), but the less fortunate side effect is that she spends a lot of time begging to watch Baby Signing Time.

But, that's not the only time she is obsessed with these days, she also loves...

Toddler Time!

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 10am until sometime in the early afternoon, the nearby Jefferson Community Center host a Toddler Play Time. Basically, for $2 a baby, its an unlimited playtime in their gymnasium filled with toys. Like this...

Look at all those toys, but...


...this is easily Stella's favorite toy. She would probably be happy to sit in this car the whole time. Or, preferably, have me push her around the whole time... Ow, my back!

Stella and I tend to get there a little early (actually, usually around 9:45) because A) her nap time usually falls around 11:30 and we want to make sure she gets plenty of time to play, and B) I've discovered that Stella tends to take a little time to warm up to changes, and giving her a little time to play on her own before the other toddlers start to arrive helps her be more ready for the chaos that soon arrives.

The other toddlers descend! Usually there's only a dozen or so other kids, but sometimes a Day Care brings a group of another 20 or so... it's pretty out of control those days.

It's also been nice for me too, because it allows us to get out of the house on a rainy day and not go too stir-crazy. Also, now that we've gone for a couple of weeks, I've started to meet some of the other parents there, and it's nice to get a feel for some of the other families living on Beacon Hill.

But, yeah, for Stella, Toddler Time = Good Time. Between that and the Baby Signing Time videos, Sarah and I have learned that T.I.M.E. is one of those words we need to spell to each other, instead of say.