What do you get when you mix...

18 parents, 1 teacher, and 10 kids between the ages of 2-4 years old in a small room on a Saturday morning?

Chaos.

Yup, Mini Me had her Sibling Class yesterday morning at the hospital. Billed as a class to introduce young children to the idea of becoming a brother/sister and make them feel at ease in the hospital setting.

Riiiiight.

The hour long class was spent listening to one kid or another having a clingy meltdown about something or another. For Mini Me, it was when one boy tried to take away her prized possession: a train. And, when the slideshow of babies was done. ("more big tv!")

For other kids, it was simply being in a group, and dealing with the fact that something was changing in their lives, and they wanted to cling desperately to mommy with every fiber of their being. Which, really, I can tell you from personal experience, is physically and emotionally draining when you are 8 months pregnant. I feel for those women, and am thankful that Mini me has only had a few of "those" moments.

So, the kids learned that babies cry, sleep and drink milk. They were shown how to change a diaper (yeah, I don't even let Mini Me wipe herself when she poops-like I'm really going to let her change the baby's diaper....) and how to swaddle/hold the baby. Mini Me wanted NO part of holding the baby.

Although, she was very interested in the diaper change part. The baby doll she had was a boy doll....an anatomically correct boy doll. She was fascinated...much to the horror of daddy. Me? I just laughed.

After the classroom portion, we went up to the maternity ward unit so that the kids could see the rooms that Mommy would be staying in, and got to look through the window of the nursery at the (very) new babies. The kids were interested, but really, this was for the moms.

All of us kind of took a deep breath and realized that in a matter of a couple of weeks, we would all be here holding our little ones. Just looking at the rooms, looking at how tiny the newborn babies were was amazing.

All in all, I don't know how much Mini Me learned from the experience. But, at least now, when I say that mommy is going to the hospital, she has a mental picture of where I am. And, when she comes to visit, she will recognize the place. That was my goal, after all.