Jan. 8, 2011: Kids Klub clobbering

Gavin gave Grandma Kathy two hugs and a kiss today. A record. Usually she gets the cold shoulder. She bought him a set of red bowls that set her back and entire dollar at Target. But $1 can buy a lot of toddler love since they don't know yet to hold out for an iPod. Or a car. My mom's convinced that because she's babysat for Gavin a couple of times he associates her with us leaving, thus making her the enemy.

Before Grandma Kathy came over Stacy, Gavin, and I went to the gym. It took Gavin awhile to get acclimated at Kids Klub so I hung out with him there. After clinging to me for awhile he was lured away by some cute little (but older than him) girls who were trying to engage him. Ordinarily I would head for the door at this point, but one of the Kids Klub attendants had disappeared so there was only one woman in charge of 10 kids. Two older boys in particular were in need of some close supervision and I was the only adult watching them. At one point I got all "moms aren't afraid to tell other moms' kids what's what" on them when the older boy pinned the younger boy on the ground and started punching him in the arm repeatedly. And hard. Each punch made a loud thwap. I took a couple of steps toward them and said, "Hey! Totally not cool, totally not cool," all stern and stuff. It broke them up momentarily, but it wasn't long before the older kid, who I already suspected watched too much wrestling on TV, grabbed one of the chairs from the kiddie table and was brandishing it World Wrestling Federation-style at the other kids. The mom in me wanted to march right over to him and snatch the chair out of his hands, but I was afraid that Gavin would get clingy at the sight of me walking away, run after me, and then get hit in the face. And then I'd have to kill that kid which would be a bad example to set for my son. So I just kept my eye on him so I could let the staff know if anyone needed to go to the hospital. Several times I had heard the lone Kids Klub attendant tell them, "No touching," and every time the older boy insisted they were playing. And I think they were. But the older boy clearly had the upper hand and could have easily hurt this other kid either on purpose or by accident. The bottom line is that Kids Klub needs more staff on Saturdays. By the time I left Gavin the other attendant had reappeared (she'd been in the bathroom with one of the kids) and Wrestling Kid had the chair confiscated. But I still felt nervous about leaving him there. Oh, and it turns out the boy being pinned down by Wrestling Kid was Stacy's coworker's son. Gavin still wears a lot of his hand me down clothes.

Gavin busted out some new dance moves to "Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics. Sadly no good video footage was acquired. I tried, but he wasn't into dancing for the camera. But added to his bag of dancing tricks is putting his hands above his head and turning in a circle. No doubt he picked this up from Stacy. I'm more of a Roger Rabbit girl myself.