A Pool Full of Cereal

Fridays are my and Anna's mommy-daughter days. I am fortunate enough to have Fridays off and it is amazing how that one extra day adds up to some real bonding time for us.

I have been taking Anna to a "gym" class at Play 2 Grow - it's a very fun time for both. This week she "graduated" from the Growers class to the Explorers class. Although this graduation feat is based solely on age, it's fun to say that my 7-month-old has graduated...Last week she was the biggest kid in the class, this week she is the smallest - she looked like a tiny baby next to the hulking 13- and 14-month-old boys!

The classes begin with a routine of clapping our hands, patting our legs, and tapping our toes on the mat (there's a very catchy song which I won't include :). Anna always squeals in delight and watches her classmates intently during the clap, clap, clap, pat, pat, pat, tap, tap, tap. Then we move to bouncing on beach balls, playing on our tummies, swinging (see video) and visiting with our baby friends.

In our new class, we even practice standing by ourselves!! Anna has been making great progress towards crawling, and I think the "big kids" inspired her as they zoomed past - the kiddos who were walking were especially fascinating.

At the end of the Explorers class there is a session called Sensory Play (I know, sounds silly!). The babies get stripped down to their diapers and then get to play in a tub of some fun material. This week it was a sandbox full of Cheerios! Now, Anna has had a few Cheerios - she hasn't quite gotten the hang of eating them without gagging, but she was eager to join in the fun as she watched two 25 lb boys stuff their mouths by the handful. In the video below she's the little gal in the bottom left corner - you'll see she gets a shower of Cheerios and then decides she wants some of her own...