Today we dropped Stevel off at work and then went to Target, where for once Vibble was agreeable to staying in the shopping cart for almost the whole time. Whew.

We came home and hung out a bit, ate some food, and then went to the Y. I have been meaning and meaning to test the waters at the babysitting room, and today was the day. I can’t say it went completely smoothly, because when we arrived, the place was packed with kids, and the babysitter was 100 percent occupied with a screaming infant—walking her, shushing her, trying to calm her down—and didn’t even seem to notice us. Meanwhile, three boys were rolling around wrestling on the floor, like literally beating on each other. But Vibble went right up to an older girl and watched her playing with a younger girl. The older girl completely ignored her, but what else is new.

Eventually a volunteer appeared from across the room to talk to me. She said, “How old is she?” I said, “One and a half.” She said, “Oh, that’s the hardest age. This will either be fine, or it will be a disaster.” I’m like, DUDE. Certainly, half of me wanted to grab my kid and walk right out of there. But then the volunteer assured me it was unusual for there to be so many kids, and that the babysitter is wonderful, she’s just trying to calm down this baby right now, etc. So I hung out a bit while Vibb kept trying (and failing) to make friends with the older girl (maybe 9 or 10 years old?), and then the babysitter sent the volunteer to get the screamy baby’s mom, which freed her up to come over and introduce herself to Violet and talk to me a sec, and I felt better. THEN a little boy who was just Vibble’s size came over, and they did the toddler greeting thing, which involves some mutual touching/poking/caressing and a bit of garbling, and went over and played in a jungle-gym together. So I made my exit but watched from the hallway for a bit—ok, a long bit—before continuing on to the pool. At the pool, I swam a tiny bit but not very much, because something is wrong with my knee right now, I don’t want to get into it, but I did go to the locker room and use the sauna and take a nice long shower with no interruptions YAY!!!

When I got back to the babysitting room, all of the kids were playing in little groups except Vibble. She was off to the side playing alone. She didn’t seem lonely, just doing her own thing. I think she needs some little friends, I worry she doesn’t know how to play with other kids. She goes to the playground or to story time at the library, but those are different kids every time. Then she goes to Gym n’ Swim, but that’s structured the whole time. Our local Moms Club meets during Vibble’s nap time. We did just start a weekly art class, and we’re trying Gymboree on Friday, but really I think I need to get her into a playgroup—unstructured time with the same kids, so she can learn how to respect and interact with “friends.” She’s got another year—at least—until we plan to put her in nursery school.

Her current stage is pretty screamy, tantrummy, and challenging. She wears us out and then doesn’t always sleep too well, which means we don’t sleep too well, either. We get very little time alone together, no time individually alone for ourselves, and not enough sleep … and all of this while she is requiring more patience from us than ever. Toddlers. Good thing they’re so cute. SO cute. It saves her life every day, Man.

But don’t take my word for it: Check out some recent photos.