seeking advice

I know there are many people who read this blog. Many of whom have had experience raising or caring for children. Some with more experience than others, some I know well, some I sort of know, and some I have never met. To all of you...I am soliciting your advice and ideas. Please feel free to leave me a comment here or send me an email if you would prefer. I would love to hear your advice, experiences, and/or ideas.

Today we started music class - something that I thought Anna would thoroughly enjoy since she likes listening to music, singing and dancing. I was correct, Anna did in fact enjoy the class and loved seeing all of the other children (about 15 in the class). The problem, or my problem anyway, is that Anna is all over the place. She will not sit still, even in my lap, for longer than 1 minute.

I know this is characteristic of a 13 month old, especially one who has just figured out how she can move and how quickly she can get around. But...picture this: we are in a class of about 15 kids with their parent or caregiver. Most of whom are sitting on the floor, on their mom's lap, or standing nearby. Some may move around a little bit, dance, walk around or crawl a few feet away, but they stay fairly close.

Then, enters Anna. She crawls out of my arms and up to every single child and parent and says hi, crawls on them, touches their face, head and hair, pulls their socks, takes their instruments, and sits in the middle of the circle and sways to the music - yelling (or singing, not sure what you would call it). She also crawls up onto the instructor while she is teaching/singing. In many ways this is both cute and funny. But in others, it is stressful for me as her mom. While some of the other moms did not mind and played with Anna, there were a few others who were not as welcoming. In fact, there were a few that you could tell were quite perturbed that I did not have "control" of my child.

Here lies my dilemma. Do I follow her and pick her up every time she invades someone else's space? Do I discipline her for not sitting still? Is that even fair to expect at this age? I know she can't comprehend sharing yet...so it's normal for her to take things away from other kids, but what do I do/say when she does this?

One option is to quit the music class and return when she is older and can understand. My apprehension in doing this is that Anna is very social and obviously loves interacting with other kids and being in social situations. Part of me thinks that as we continue to do more of this the novelty of "other kids" will diminish.

If we continue in the class (it's 1x / week for 8 weeks), I need some advice on things I can do so that we do not disrupt the experience for the other children and parents. Toys, food, drink, etc are not allowed in the class - so I don't have anything other than myself and my lovely singing voice to entertain her. :)

Advice is welcome!!