Storytime at the Library

Today was Avery's first time going to Storytime at the library (since last week was canceled due to weather.) I was very excited, and we decided to go early to play a little beforehand.

It started out well. When we arrived, there were already about 10 or so toddlers in the kids area with their parents/grandparents, etc. Avery and I pulled out some puzzles and played in the vicinity of some other kids for about 20 minutes. She was watching them, and waving, and saying hi, and it was going great. Then we were called into the room for the actual story time. We walked in, and by this time there were probably 15-20 kids or so, and each had an adult, so it was pretty crowded. Avery started getting nervous, so I picked her up, and we went to go get our hands stamped. Well, that was about it-Avery started shaking and trying to climb into me, and was terrified. I was surprised, because she had been doing so well, but we decided to go outside of the room to calm down. Luckily, the room is enclosed with mostly windows, so we could still watch what was happening from outside the room. She wanted to watch and wave, but every time I tried taking her in, she melted down. In the end, we sat outside the room, and we didn't here the stories, but she was able to follow the movements/dancing/clapping that happened in between. Toward the end, the leader brought out some bubbles, and Avery looked intrigued, so I tried again, but she started screaming as soon as we walked into the room.

After it was over, most of the kids and parents came out and let their kids play with the games, puzzles, and books again. Surprisingly, Avery was TOTALLY FINE with this, even when we sat at a table and some kids came and sat with us! A few parents reassured me that sometimes it takes kids a few times and it can be a little overwhelming at first, but to keep trying. At first, I was only going to go once a week, on Mondays. However, it's offered on Wednesdays too, and now I'm thinking I should try to make this a more regular thing so that she can get used to it and we don't have to 'start over' each time.

We did get a few compliments - everyone thought Avery looked just like me - my little mini me! I'm hoping that with time, she'll love Storytime and playing with the other kids!