He's growing up...

Today was Baby's Way to Books at the library and Aidan loves going but once we're there he gets so shy. He doesn't want to leave my side to dance or get his own musical instrument at the end. Usually the format is a few songs to start, a couple of stories read aloud, a simple craft (coloring, painting, etc), free play with musical instruments, and then a few songs to end it. Well, after clutching onto my leg and sitting on my lap instead of his carpet square we finally make it to the instruments part and he came out of his shell a little bit. I got him bells to start with since he did not look interested in all at getting up to get anything and then after a few minutes (and watching a couple of other little ones safely move away from their mommies to get their own instrument) he crawled to the box that was oh-so-far away (4 feet) and got his own instrument. To my surprise he stayed at the box and started taking each thing out one-by-one. The little guy next to him thought it was more fun to put them back in the box. So as they continued this pack-unpack game with a little bit of playing in between, I watched my 15 month in awe as he finally felt comfortable enough to let go a bit. I think he enjoyed the freedom and I certainly enjoyed watching him. We came back to our carpet square after cleaning up, today it was Hh with a house picture, and stood to do "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes", a song he knows well at home and will touch his head and shoulders and sometimes toes, but at the library he acts like he's never heard it before. (I hope he doesn't become like me in the aspect of worrying what others will think all the time) We do a few more songs and then it's time to say goodbye and put the carpet away. Usually we walk it over together but "Mr. ILikeThisIndependenceThing" decided he would put it away on his own today after I handed it to him and instructed him to go put it away. Did I really think he'd walk all the way across that great big room (okay, so it's only about a 10ft walk) all by himself and put the mat down? No way! I thought he'd want his mommy to hold his hand and walk him over there. Well, he proved me wrong. Way wrong. He took that Hh mat from me with such confidence and walked right over where the other little guy was nicely stacking his mat on top of the others and from about 2ft away he gave his Hh carpet square a nice toss right to the top of the pile. Hah! He's so good he didn't even have to walk all the way there. Nice job buddy! Mommy is so proud! :-)