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 Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 2:08 pm
Clara was cute. And fun. And all that other good stuff. But, Emily really really did not know much about babies. She knew a lot about taking care of adults-- she'd run her own safe haven for mutated ones for years, after all...but, babies were beyond her. She'd had a nursery in the Haven for a reason!
So, she'd taken to reading a lot of books during Clara's rather frequent nap times. These books indicated that one of the best things to do with a baby was...well, to keep it occupied. After following several other suggestions in the books, she'd come across the idea of exercise-- something she'd never really had the luxury to participate in before-- and found a class for exercising with your toddler.
So, of course she'd signed up, and now here she was with an increasingly nervous expression on her face and a wiggling mouse-girl who had no idea what they were about to do. They were quite early-- a habit Emily had always been in-- and there were a few other parents gathering about to participate...so, Emily did what the books said was the right thing to do; approached another parent to talk about kids.
"Um. Hello," she said, smiling uncertainly. She'd always had a schpiel when she approached strangers before. Hello, you're a freak of nature, I'm a freak of nature who can help you, how'd you like to survive the apocalypse with me? Now, though, it was different. What exactly did normal people -talk- about?
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 7:21 pm
Alvar was standing far enough away from Kiri to show he was unhappy but close enough that he wouldn't get lost. He didn't really understand why his mother was bringing him here but it did mean getting out of the house and meeting people which would be interesting so if he was honest with himself he would admit he was looking forward to this. That said he was against anything that was organised and structured so he had made a big show of not wanting to come and threatening that if forced to he would embarrass her by refusing to do anything. Kiri had completely ignored this and said that he was welcome to not take part if that's what he wanted but he was still going to the class.
Kiri looked around her. She had never really worried about exercise growing up and her daughter was always moving around anyway so there wasn't anything to worry about there but Alvar was proving to be a bit different. It wasn't that he didn't get exercise but his exercise tended to result in him falling from something. She hoped that this class would teach him the co-ordination needed to survive his strange tendencies or some alternative to climbing and falling from places.
Kiri and Alvar both turned to look at the person who had come up to Kiri, Alvar just as quickly turning away to show that he wasn't interested in what his mum did. Smiling Kiri replied with a friendly "Hello, are you here with you son or daughter?" She wasn't very good at conversations, always worried she would do something wrong but knew that it was part of being a parent.
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Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 11:49 am
Emily nodded, motioning to the small mouse in her arms,
"Clara and I are here for a little exercise," she said softly, "The book said it was good for her to get out and about, meet other children her own age..."
The instructor had arrived-- at least, Emily was fairly certain this was the instructor given the amount of equipment the woman was carrying. An assistant came up behind her to help with the stuff, and Emily turned her attention back to the person in front of her, and the child. He...well, he didn't seem quite normal to Emily either. She wondered if all children on Gaia were like this-- half human, half some sort of plant or animal?
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Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:44 pm
Kiri thought back to the few child rearing books she had found in the house's library. Certainly she seemed to remember something about socialising and exercise and she was sure that it wasn't good for kids to be by themselves so it made sense to come here for those reasons. Probably a lot more sense than trying to prevent your toddler breaking his neck.
"It's the same for me and Alvar" Kiri responded gesturing at her son who seeing his was being talked about turned with a nice smile and bowed a little to the lady with the mouse.
He was still 'unhappy' with his mum but it didn't hurt to appear nice to other people, besides making her embarrassed by being rude straight off was too simple a plan, and as his mum had pointed out potentially would embarrass him even more than her.
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 11:56 am
Clara didn't seem to catch any rudeness or unhappiness in Alvar's general behaviour, and smiled in a friendly but timid way towards the boy, clinging tightly to Emily while doing so.
"Do you have other children?" the woman asked. Kiri seemed pretty confident with this one, which led Emily to believe that either she just generally knew a lot about kids, didn't worry about them at all, or already had others.
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 2:25 pm
Alvar was curious about Clara, not only was she tiny but she seemed very shy. Both he and his sister were extroverts and his mum while introverted wasn't shy so he hadn't met any shy people before. Still regardless of that she seemed nice so smiled back, radiating polite and friendly gentleman.
"Yes I have one older daughter, Alice but she and Alvar are very different types" Kiri commented. Kiri didn't know a lot about children but was one of those odd people that assumed that children didn't break easily and so just worried about the things likely to actually cause trouble. Besides Mrs Potts, her housekeeper and cook had helped raise Kiri and her sister and knew anything that Kiri wasn't likely to.
"Is Clara your first?" she asked, based on the nervousness of the mother it seemed likely that she hadn't had much to do with children before, but Gaia was the type of place where even if you had lots of experience you could still get a child which you had no idea about.
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Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 1:12 pm
"I don't wanna go to gym! I wanna play!" Holly was clearly not amused, and she let herself be known by shouting as loudly as possible as Nyx entered the gym, making sure that everyone knew how bad her mommy was being to her.
"But it's like playing, sweetheart," Nyx responded, hefting a heavy bag over her shoulder, "And, there's lots of kids your age that you can meet and have fun with. See?" With a nod because her hands weren't free, the light-haired woman indicated to the famiilies that had arrived early for the class she had offered to teach. Or perhaps she had arrived late, and they were on time. She lost track whenever the sun was out.
Holly still didn't like the idea of not getting her way exactly, so she snubbed her nose upward with a humph! and dropped the ball she'd been holding, her bracelets clinking as she inched away from her guardian. Nyx sighed, shaking her head, but she nevertheless smiled for the families, shrugging her duffle bag from her shoulders and scooping up the discarded ball.
"Good morning, everyone. My name is Nyx, and I am your guest instructor from over at Durem Midnight Tai-Chi." The speech was somewhat rehearsed, but Nyx had learned over the years that people generally preferred a rehearsed type of competence than spontaneity upon first entering a class. The unexpected could come later: for now, they needed to feel like this was all very familiar.
"We're all here for the toddler's class, right?" There seemed to be no objections. "Alright. Today we're going to work on some simple exercises that you and your toddler can do at home, to boost activity and fitness and everything else that any baby's magazine likes to preach about." She motioned to Holly, who was still busy glaring at her from the other side of the room. "This is Holly, and we'll demonstrate how each activity is done. Won't we, Holly?"
As much as Holly liked to be stubborn, she liked even more to be the center of attention, and her face lit up as she bounded back towards her mother. "Uh-huh!" She chirped, with an enthusiastic nod.
"Alright. So what I need now is for all the families to come up and get a floor mat and a ball, since we'll be using both of these for the exercises. If you have any questions, you can ask them, as well." With a nod, she handed the ball back to Holly, who needed both her hands to hold it upright. She looked out to the others, children like her, and wondered about them. Some of the curiosity was directed at how they would play together, but most of it was wanting to know if they liked her hair, pigtailed as it was. Shallow, perhaps, but it was the Holly way to be.
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Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2009 8:55 am
Emily nodded,
"Yes, Clara's my first and only" Other than the hundreds she'd taken care of as leader of the Haven, of course, but those were mostly adults and she wasn't nearly as directly involved in their day-to-day activities.
Clara clung to her mother tightly as Emily went over to get a mat and a ball as told, finding a good spot for them and setting them down,
"It's...challenging."
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Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2009 4:23 am
Alvar noticed that people were collecting items from the front so strode forward to get some himself, he was a bit disconcerted that his mother followed, but he soon found out why when he tried to take both a ball and a mat at once, he just wasn't big enough to handle them both.
He quickly thrust the mat at his mother wanting to make it look like that's what he had always intended before he made a fool of himself.
Kiri politely took the mat that her son practically threw at her and quietly let him choose their spot. She had learnt from observing him that Alvar liked to be incharge and hated being made to feel inferior to adults so she tended to avoid taking control unless she had to.
Alvar moved to a spot near to Clara and Emily simply expecting his mum to follow, after all isn't that what parent did?
Kiri was glad to see that he had chosen a spot where she could continue her conversation and not appear rude by walking off on Emily and Clara.
"I think that everyone would agree that raising children isn't easy and it doesn't help that every child is different, especially here in Gaia" Kiri agreed, her daughter was a labrador girl and her son appeared to be part plant, she didn't know of a how to book in existance which covered cases like those.
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Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2009 12:40 pm
Nyx watched as one by one, the parents collected their things, her ears twitching in approval once it appeared that everyone had settled in. "Alright, everyone, we're going to start with some stretching," she announced, giving a good look out at the small throng of people partnered up. "I want everyone," she said, reaching down, "To bend at the waist and touuuuuuch your toes." With a simple motion, she grabbed the ends of her feet, straining her neck to look back out at the audience. "It's okay if you can't reach them all the way, just go as far as you can, and make sure to stretch those muscles. Parents, help your kids if they need some guidance as to what to do."
Holly, in the meanwhile, mimed her mother, barely having to bend to reach the green nubs of her first pair of feet. She found it somewhat absurd that other people wouldn't be able to touch their toes on the first try, considering how absolutely easy it was, and looked at Nyx to tell her so. However, the woman was previously occupied, and so, with a huff, Holly quit her stretching early and toddled over to her mother, tugging at the hem of her shirt once again.
"Mommy, when do we get to the fun part? This is boriiiiing," Holly whined, giving another tug for emphasis. As patient as Nyx was, she gave the girl a stern look before standing, one that might as well have had 'Hush!' written on her furrowed brow. "Is everyone ready to move on? Next, we're going to reaaach for the sky," she said, doing the movement as she spoke. Having been scorned, Holly almost decided that she wouldn't do the movement in revenge, but as she saw others completing the action her competitveness kicked in, sending her hands skyward like everyone else's.
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