as a first-time parent Kara was desperate to find other places for jude to be busy besides the living room, but overwhelmed by the large number of classes for infants and toddlers...music class, gym, spanish, story time, gymnastics, art, Shakespeare. (just kidding on that last one, but i'm sure someone has tried to sell a class with old william to desperate parents hoping their little one gets accepted to Harvard).
Jude's busy nature helped Kara settled on My Gym, a chain of baby and child exercise facilities and classes. One of the best parts during the winter is the indoor swings. jude and his classmates always toddle super fast to reach the one special swing that has Winnie the Pooh attached.
swinging in winter!
The best part about the twice weekly visits to My Gym is that the entire place is child-safe and padded. Jude gets to practice skills he never would at home because, uh, we don't have gym equipment, and Kara would be exhausted setting it all up. Slides, trampolines, a large ball pit, forward and backward rolls and flips.
Kara has also seen Jude's trust of strangers grow as he is whisked off to ride the zip line with mom cheering him on, or hanging from a trapeze by his little hands and a staff person.
the new squat skill
Here's my favorite My Gym moment. It was an exercise mat under the high bar, picture the blue or red plastic one from your or your child's YMCA class. This mat had a support bar hidden under the middle. So it was a slight hill from the edge to the middle.
Jude carefully stepped up the one inch to climb on the mat. Carefully, and later really fast, he walked up the slight incline. Mister Jude squealed as he practiced walking on this new surface over and over, making laps on the mat.
A great part of class for Kara is separation time.
separation time skyscraper
Its is two to three minutes where the kids play with special toys with the staff while parents take a breather on the sidelines. I'm usually like that mom in the background, making a quick check of facebook or the news.If I had one criticism of My Gym, where is the latte bar for parents during the separation time? Maybe I'll start one and get jude a lifetime membership.
Places like those are lifesavers. I did Gymboree with Andrew when he was Jude's age. That once a week class was a critical opportunity to come up for air.
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