MyGym

I took Alyssa to try out a MyGym class this morning and it went REALLY well. She had a HUGE smile on her face probably 95% of the time and as soon as I saw that it totally justified spending the money. There were 4 teachers in her class, two men and two women. They were all absolutely wonderful with the kids and really good at getting Alyssa to let them help her on some of the equipment rather than sticking to me like glue, which is what usually happens when we got to parks, etc. And they got bonus points for putting a teacher next to me during circle time that would take over if some of the movements got to "out of hand" for a pregnant mommy to do. My only complaint is that while it is really fun for the kids, the pace moves a little quickly at times. They start off letting the kids just run around for a few minutes and then move to circle time where they do a song and "muscle warm-up". Then comes probably 20 - 30 minutes of more free play, but within that time there are "centers" set up. One group of centers was walking on a balance beam, swinging from a rope, and practicing front rolls/somersaults; the next center was swings (some double with two kids and some single with just one, which was kind of cool) and "bucking horse" which consisted of riding a plastic rocking horse (supervised) down a slide and then the teacher would rock the horse around in the circle. With the centers it was like they could have exactly so many minutes to do the activity and then WHOOSH ~ they had to wisk it away to move on to the next thing even if kids were still playing. I would have been more inclined to leave something out until the kid gets bored with it and then move on, but I suppose they do know what they are doing! They also had about 5 minutes of "alone play" where all the parents left the play area to leave the kids alone with the 4 teachers and some musical toys, trucks, sorting blocks kind of toys. Alyssa could still see me, but I guess they try to get them to play on their own. Maybe it was just that it was her first time there, but Alyssa kept walking around to see what all was out to play with and then as soon as she decided what she wanted to play with WHOOSH; everything is wisked away again. Which was what led to a bit of a melt down the last couple minutes of class, but overall she did really great and I think she had a good time.

I didn't get a great vibe from any of the moms, so I'm not sure that this will be nearly as great of a mommy-mommy bonding experience for me, but its really fun to get out and do something different with Alyssa, especially since it gives us some special time before the baby comes. And she can go to 2 "free plays" during the week, so hopefully Adam will be able to take her to play every once in a while, too, and they can have some daddy/daughter time.

PS ~ Out of the 4 girls in the class, two are named Alyssa . . . guess we weren't nearly as creative as we thought!