Social Cues

As Olivia gets older and more verbal, one interesting development is seeing her learn social cues and norms. A few Fridays ago, I had the opportunity to experience complete social awkwardness and awesomeness within about 20 minutes of each other.

I decided to enroll Olivia in a mommy-and-me gymnastics class on Friday mornings since I have the day off now. On the morning of our first class, she was pretty hesitant and timid. The previously mentioned "mommy phase" is still holding strong and I think she was terrified I was going to leave her there. So she wouldn't leave my side the entire class! At the very beginning of class all the kids basically have 10 minutes of free-for-all in the gym area. Kids are everywhere, jumping and playing on all the equipment. During that time, the teacher came over to ask how we heard about the gym and explain to us a little how the class worked. The entire time that she was talking, Olivia had a very worried expression on her face and repeatedly yelled "No! No! Bye-bye! Mama! Mama!" (i.e. Miss Ellen...you need to go bye-bye and leave me alone with my mama and just so everyone is clear my mama is not leaving me here!) Fortunately, Miss Ellen speaks 18-month old and quickly took the cue to stop talking and leave us alone. Not Olivia's sweetest moment by far.

But then, not 20 minutes later it was the end of class and we were all sitting in a circle doing some activities. Olivia was standing behind me as one of the girls on the other side of the room started to cry. Olivia immediately noticed and started staring at her. I was terrified that Olivia would do what she usually does when she sees a kid crying....point to them and yell repeatedly "baby! baby!" Fortunately for me, she did not do that. Instead, she walked across the circle to this little girl, got right in her face, and said in the sweetest and most enthusiastic tone "hiiiiiiiiiii!" The girl immediately stopped crying and looked at Olivia. The little girl's mom introduced herself and her daughter, Avery, and asked Olivia what her name was. Olivia pointed to herself and said "Me!" and then pointed across the room to me and said "Mama!" It was absolutely adorable if I do say so myself. Now that everyone was properly introduced, Miss Ellen continued with circle time and Avery and Olivia sat next to each other for the rest of class. It is really heart-warming to see glimpses into the future personality of our sweet girl. Seeing her recognize that Avery was sad and show empathy towards her was such a wonderful thing to watch and made me so happy for my Fridays off so that I can witness moments like that, instead of hearing about them from others!

Update: The theme of Olivia "introducing" people continues in a cute way.  Last night we were in the front yard playing with her little car when our neighbor came outside.  Matt went over to talk to them and a few minutes later, so did Olivia and I.  As we walked up our neighbor said hi to Olivia and asked how she was doing.  She pointed to her car and said "ca!" and then pointed at me and said "Mama!"  My dad often tells a story about me being around Olivia's age, in a diaper in our front yard introducing all the neighbors to each other.  We think its cute that Olivia is doing the same thing.