It's Been a Gymboree Summer

In an attempt to meet moms and have an air conditioned activity for my novice walker, I signed Evie up for Gymboree Gym Classes in June. 


My little gymnast

Let me take a brief aside to rant.  A few of our friends like to complain about how expensive things are and they would never spend $70 to put their kid in Gymboree.  Frankly, I'm sick of those comments as well as the "you are lucky to have the option to stay at home".  They make me feel uncomfortable in my own skin.  We all make choices about what is important to spend our money on.  I am THIRTY-ONE years old and believe that we are old enough to enjoy life even on one salary.  We have to take money out of savings almost every month to pay bills.  It pains me to see that money dwindling, but I made the choice to stay at home.  I'd love a big 4 bedroom house like some of you have, but that's not possible anymore.   I'm not going to sit at home and complain about money for another decade.  None of us will ever have enough.  So I signed Evie up for Gymboree.  It was good for her and me.  And I am darn happy to have spent 3 times the amount on her gym membership than Jason's.  This is what I wanted to do for my daughter.  You may not agree.  This is my blog and I'll say what I want on it.  

Ok, I'm done.

Evie participated in the Level 3 class, which is ages 10-16 months.  Evie had class once a week for 45 minutes and we could go to any open gym times during the week.  Gymboree is in Columbia (what isn't in Columbia that I do?)  so we didn't go to a lot of open gyms.  Evie's teacher followed a similar routine every class- circle time with some "stretching" and singing, play time at the centers guided by the teacher here and there, bubbles, parachute, then more singing. 

Evie is a great climber.

Evie was not a huge fan of her teacher at close distances.  He was sweet as anything, but I think his voice scared her.  She did much better when she could just run wild around the gym than with structured play.  Most classes it took Evie 35 of the 45 minutes to warm up (i.e. detach herself from me).  The parachute scared her.  By late August, she clapped her hands along with her teacher and was more engaged in group activities, still no parachute. Of course, I decided once the hot, humid weather broke, I was canceling our membership, just as she really started to love it.

Clapping along with Mr. D to come to
the center mat

I am really proud of the social and physical progress Evie made in her 3 months at Gymboree.   I took some pictures on my phone at our last class. 

She loved all the balls at the gym.  She tried to put them in
the basketball net, but she is not tall enough to reach. 

Safely mounted on her own and rocked that horse

The FIRST time she crawled through a tunnel! 

Our new gym for the Fall is outdoor playgrounds.  I am SO happy the weather is gorgeous.  One salary living is challenging, but after a week at home with perfect weather, it is worth every penny coming out of savings.