the social butterfly

Today we went to toddler story time at the library for the first time. It's for ages 18 months to 3 years, and though she's only 17 months old, she's clearly too old for the baby laptime, which is infants through 18 months (there's no WAY she would sit in my lap), so I tried the toddler one, thinking they'd be used to little kids wandering around and not staying in a parents' laps. Well, there were all the other little boys and girls, sitting in their moms' laps, and then there was my little girl, becoming best friends with the librarian leading the story time, the mom sitting next to us, the little boy across the room, the big stuffed polar bear in the back of the room, and everyone in between. She wouldn't sit still for two seconds, except when the librarian was playing the guitar and singing a song. Even then she stood (but some other kids were standing too by that point, so that part wasn't so bad), but at least she was still. But as soon as the guitar was put away (and she realized that signing "more" wouldn't make him bring it out again and play a song just for her), she'd begin to wander to and fro, picking up the books around the room and carrying them over to me one by one, or up to the storyteller and putting them on his lap, or to the grandma across the room. She took someone's DVD from their stroller and brought that to me. She took someone's baseball cap and brought that to me. She went up to the felt board and picked up a felt balloon that had fallen off and handed it back to the storyteller (wow, isn't she helpful?). Oh my....she was "quite the social butterfly," as one mom leaned over and said to me.

Everyone was smiling and laughing at her; I'll have to admit that it was probably pretty funny to watch, if she wasn't my own, but as her mother, who is trying to teach her to be obedient, it was quite stressful and showed me that she has a LOOOOOOOONG way to go! Granted, she is only 17 months old and doesn't understand it yet if I say, "You need to sit and listen to the story or we're going to have to leave," but she'll have to learn it sometime. At what point, I wonder, will she start to understand? And how do I allow her to be her friendly little self and not squelch her love for people and yet get her to be a good listener in these types of settings? It's a good thing we've got a few years before school starts to practice all of these skills!!!

And while I'm at it asking questions, where in the world did she get this socialness???? It's CERTAINLY not from me! If you know me even a little bit, you know that I never have been and never will be a very social person. And though her daddy talks more than I do, he was always very quiet and shy around strangers growing up, he tells me. She doesn't know a stranger. Maybe it was all of that mexican food I craved while I was pregnant. Did all of the spice give her some extra spice??

I love my girl, full of sugar and spice and everything nice....I just need to get used to having a social butterfly as a daughter and realize that she's not me.