Another Outlet For Play

Sophia and I attended her first session at the play gym yesterday. We got there barely on time. The circle was already formed and we both squeezed in just as the other kids were finishing on their rattle routine.

It was an interesting 45 minutes.

Not all the 11-18 month olds did what they were supposed to. But I don't think anyone was expecting them to. While the 'trainer' dispensed activities and coordinated, one little fella would be running off there, another would be climbing the gym and yet another would be crawling into the little playhouse. So I didn't feel that bad when Sophie didn't do most of the stuff that was laid out. She was in her own little play heaven. So much to do, so many things to see, all in one place. Even the other little kids didn't detract her from getting as much play out everything there as possible. She played peek-a-boo with me at the playhouse (she didn't want to crawl in), she bit on the plastic tube, she climbed up the stairs and then slid down the slide (well, I mostly helped), she shook the rattle, played with the toy pieces and did all manner of fun things she doesn't get to do with her limited stock of toys and way too many books at home.

Her favourites though, were the swing and the bubbles. I'd bought a tub of bubble liquid from ToysRUs but never got around to using it at home. I should have. There's something about bubbles and kids: they simply LOVE them. The group of 8-10 kids simply swarmed the bubbles; it was like seeing moths gathering towards a flame. Really, they basically followed the bubbles wherever they went. It was like watching the Pied Piper of Hameln (no, I didn't spell it wrong; that's the way the Germans spell it) doing his thing, only with bubbles. It didn't matter that the kids got in each other's way; there were no fights and all they really cared about was getting their hands on those bubbles as they landed on the carpet or preferably on any parts of their little bodies. The joy and glee on those little faces were priceless.

The swing elicited as much joy and excitement from Sophie as did swimming and splashing in the pool. Shrieks and happy laughter filled her short-lived 2 minutes on the swing. Good thing she didn't all out yell and scream when it was time to take down the temporary swings from the ceiling-hung carabenas.

After the session was over, I was more tired than she was! Can't blame mom as her class was from 9:30am - 10:15am. No choice for it, the other class sessions coincide with her nap times so this was the best time to take her out.

I decided that today would be a good day to try out the open gym session at the play gym. It's basically a free-for-all for members of the play gym to bring their babies/toddlers over to use the facilities.

I had decided, yes. But Sophia overturned that decision because she'd rather nap instead. All this after we'd got on the mrt and were well on our way there to meet daddy for lunch. By the time she got up and had lunch, it was past the 1hr window we had to make it to the open gym session. Sigh, and she had so much fun yesterday. Guess we'll just have to make it to a different open gym session next week.

I'm kinda dreading the whole walking-to-the-mrt station-and-back routine as it'll take a good long walk to get from the mrt station to the play gym and vice-versa. But then again, I think I've been putting on weight recently and I suppose a good long walk would do me good. I just need to pile on the deodorant because by the time we got to the play gym yesterday, my sweat was streaming down my neck in rivulets and the pores on my back couldn't breathe for nuts as my top was glued to my back.

Next week we'll need to leave the house earlier so that we won't have to dash about in a mad rush to get to the place on time. And I don't have to look like I'd just run a marathon.