Little Gym Date

To keep my little Mama-Daughter time initiative rolling I signed Emery up for a play date at The Little Gym through Houston Mom's Blog for Friday March 28th.  I had a hankering to give The Little Gym a whirl for quite some time.  So when a play date on one of my Fridays off showed up in my news feed, I considered it a sign.

Cheerios, milk and a bib?  I am almost positive all Olympic athletes start their days like this.

I have to admit that I was preeeeeetty concerned about how our little anti-adventurer would handle unknown activities in a new place.  So I went in with zero expectations.  Miss emery actually surprised me and did great!  Predictably, she was hesitant.  Also predictably, we did have one meltdown.  All in all though, I would say that's not too shabby!  At the beginning she quietly observed everyone and led me around by the hand but by the end she was running around and trying things out.  

A "goose" box just for showing up?  I'm liking it, I'm liking it.

Capital S-K-E-P-T-I-C-A-L.

What was the meltdown about, you ask?  Oh, you know.  Just extreme cynicism.  At the very beginning, all the parents and kids were asked to form a circle in the middle of the room.  She was immediately hesitant but sat in my lap.  Then the coach explained that we were going to walk around in a circle and follow directions to warm up together.  At first she reluctantly held my hand and walked as the music started.  Then once the music started to increase in volume and all of a sudden we were supposed to switch directions and start doing things like skip, hop, run, etc she tapped out.  Loudly.  She immediately took up post on my leg and started hysterically screaming.  I'm not sure if she thought we had crossed over into a cult or if organized activities aren't her thing - either way.  We sat that activity out.  She rebounded fairly quickly though once the warm up ended.  

Just some children.  Who aren't scarred by walking in a circle.

All in all, I'm chalking it up to a success.  Hopefully some day in the future we will return.  Maybe we will just skip the warm up part.  I've never been one for stretching anyway.  I was proud of you my little lovey- thanks for playing with Mama.  I'm not quite sure if these Mama-Daughter dates mean anything to you, but they mean the world to me!

Huh.  What exactly are these cats doing?

Mama, is this a somersault?  Am I doing it?  (Editors note: not even close.)

I know... I'll just run down this foam wedge.  (Unfortunately this child inherited her Mama's coordination.  This usually resulted in a wipe out.  Which, luckily, only made her laugh.)

This was when she got really brave.  Note how far away I was when taking this picture.

I'm so good at climbing stairs.  I should get a medal.

Yo- Mom.  You seeing this?  I'm seriously so good.  When's the baby gate coming down on the ones at home?

Rather than focusing on walking on the balance beam, she was looking out the window at where the juice was.

Concentration = tongue out.  She has that in common with her Uncle Matt.

Apparently nothing is more fun that hurling yourself into a huge foam mat.

Should I give that bar a shot?  Nah.  I'm good.

Not the intended use, darling.

This was a BIG step.  She did this one all by herself.

All's well that ends with juice and donuts!