Tag: gymboree

End of an Era….

Lad 1
Lad 2

Today was my last Gymboree class, and in fact, likely the last ever baby class I will take one of my own to. I’ve run out of holidays at work which I’ve been using to work a 4 day week, and, my workload is insane just now and I can’t keep trying to cram 5 days into 4 forever and not have something give. So I just had to cancel the last baby class I had left.

….I cried.

I didn’t mean to! I was even holding it together as we sang the end of sessions songs I’ve sung with both lads over the years knowing that I’ll remember these Gymbo songs as long as I live. But then, they did a special hip hip hooray for Jake and I just kinda lost it. My mask caught my tears but didn’t hide them. Other mums sympathised; nobody made me feel silly. These classes, and the friendships and bonding over similar aged children they bring, have been part of my support bubble for so long. I’ll miss them.

The other parents yes, but also the amazing teachers – and not just Gymboree – but Baby Sensory and Jo Jingles too. These people are a lifeline to mothers. They are epic.

And I know there will be other classes to take the lads to, and when they’re older and I’m taking them to football and swimming or coding camp or pirate kung fu zombie extravaganza or whatever they get into, it will fill my diary up again. But these won’t be the same – they’ll not have me holding them, helping them. A teacher will take them away while I watch from the sidelines or go get a coffee. I’m unlikely to have that level of one on one class interaction again. (On reflection I think swimming might be the exception on this one but consider this train of thought an out of the pool one).

It made me sad, it’s the end of an era. And Lad 2 got a fairly raw deal because lock down made his classes smaller and shorter and adults wore masks and I KNOW they know no different but there is so much interaction with a smile and funny faces that is just lost.

This also just signifies the end of the baby bubble. We are done with the kids thang, more than happy with what we got. Our little angels (lol). And from now on, it’s grown up stuff during the week. No more maternity leave and clever use of holidays to extend my bubble. Just boring adult stuff. Till the weekend at least.

I took lots of pictures today, and I lay on the mat with Jake lying on me (avoiding the teeth obviously cos that’s still an occasional issue) and tried to take a nice picture and then I realised it was pointless. I just enjoyed that moment with him cuddling me (yep regular readers, Jake cuddles now!). And I realised that I haven’t done enough of that ‘enjoying’ recently.

I don’t really do New Year’s Resolutions per se – but this year I’m introducing a late one. Start taking those moments, acknowledge them, and enjoy them. I think with all the working from home, batch cooking, car fixing, damp tackling, finance wrangling, bum wiping etc etc etc etc ETC… it’s not always possible to realise how amazing and valuable these moments are. I’m going to focus on that, and rope Lad Dad into it too.

Final thought. I have two almost identical pictures of my two lads at Gymboree (see above). It was an accident really because I was just taking pictures but I absolutely love that I have these two similar pictures – as a reminder of all the lovely people I met and times we had through both boys classes.

I feel sad today, but I know I’ll always look back on the times I had with the lads at these classes as happy and wonderful and value the friendships that came from them.

Santa visiting lads…

This year we did a Santa visit for the first time. It’s really the first year that Benji has been aware of the whole Santa and stocking thing and as he’s obsessed with being a ‘good guy’ at the moment – they’ve been covering Police Officers at nursery – this has wrapped up (pun not intended but I’m not apologising) nicely with the whole nice and naughty list thang.

For me, this has brought back a child like excitement about Christmas, I wouldn’t have said I was jaded by Christmas, because I love seeing my family and friends, choosing presents, time off work etc, but after the utter fudging (see, I’m watching my swearing!) debacle that was Christmas 2020, it is so lovely to feel hope and joy and all those festive tingly feelings through the excitement of a child.

As I write, there is still a worry that plans could be affected AGAIN and the very thought of that fills me with dread, but, rest assured, if we end up stuck here alone again, Benji and Jake won’t know any different and we’ll have a lovely family time where me and Lad Dad day drink a bit too much, eat everything in sight (party food!!) and take a thousand pictures just to try to get one nice one.

Back to visiting Santa, as I’ve mentioned before, my boys are both pretty confident but Santa can be scary and I was expecting Benji to be the problem. But nope, this time it was Jake, JAKE who bites everyone (I’m still going to do a biting post one day), shoves little girls over at Gymboree and is absolutely and terrifyingly fearless. He absolutely screamed at Santa, wriggled and fought him and even shoved the present away. I’ve never seen him like that and I got the giggles to be honest, bad mummy.

I’d had visions of a lovely family shot of everyone smiling angelically at Santa that we could treasure for years to come, but no. We got what you see above…. although I actually love this picture of Jake for reasons I can’t understand! And Benji looks nice at least! He likes presents. And he had been promised lunch at the Dobbies cafe after. He’s easily pleased that one.

I think paying to visit Santa might be a relatively new thing, probably nicked from America and monetised, because I don’t remember visiting Santa in that way when I was little myself.

We definitely had one that came to our primary school – identified loudly as my friend’s grandpa or something when I was 9 and had made the logical, but sad decision that Santa couldn’t possibly be real. ‘Why?’ my mum asked me. My answer? Not how can anyone deliver presents that fast or any conclusion that I think other kids come to. For me it was simple. ‘Reindeer can’t fly’. I was sworn to secrecy for my little sister, then became filled with dread that when she did work it out, Santa wouldn’t come anymore. On reflection, I think she knew earlier than she let on but didn’t say for fear of no stocking. Luckily my parents like stockings too and we continued that tradition long into adulthood.

So, to be able to now continue the secret the whole world keeps about Santa for my own children, and share the excitement with Benji (Jake doesn’t really get it but he sure likes pulling things off the Christmas tree), I’m seeing Christmas with fresh eyes this year.

And that’s not just because the way Christmas and New Year fall this year, I get 2 weeks off to explore that day drinking. Promise 😉