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Thursday, April 16, 2009

Work-out time (well... almost)

Over last weekend (yes, last weekend was jam-packed, as are all weekends, as Wayne is then available to drive us around, heh!), we tried out a free trial session of My Gym at Lanbao (Blue Castle) apartments, a 5-minute drive from our place. Vanessa signed up for both Rachel and Rosabelle, and I wasn't very optimistic we could make it for the 9 am session for 4-6 month olds since our daughter doesn't wake up early. Lo and behold, she actually got up at 7:30am on Saturday morning, and we were the first to arrive for the class!

My Gym opened a few months back here, and is similar to Gymboree, but is less commercialised and not as crowded as the latter. It's basically children of similar ages getting together for organized play.
She got a 'Shi Yue' sticker on her arm, and by the time the other kids arrived, they told us to wait for the 10 am class for 7 months and above. So we just sat around on the carpet and played with toys, and she was smiling at the assistants. When the other older kids started streaming in, our girl started wanting to drink milk, so I had to nurse her and she ended up being the latest for the class though she was the first to arrive. After doing some to-ing and fro-ing on the cushion log, she actually regurgitated, haha, cos of the motion and after a meal.

Rest of the class consisted of swings, slides, musical instruments, and jigsaw puzzles. We also met some other Singaporeans and Malaysians there. The Singaporean is actually my ex-colleague, Chen Yi's, friend, and my senior at Nanyang Girls' High (yes, Singapore is THAT small), and I even met my ex-client and her daughter there (yes, the world is also THAT small).


After we left, the Choons (Tim, Van and Rachel) and Shis went to Olio Dome at Shin Kong for lunch. We have decided that the cost of enrolling for My Gym is way too high (the cheapest is an average of RMB164 per 45-minute class, that is if you sign up for 96 sessions). Sheesh. Our daughter's play sessions cost more than her Dad's gym session, or more than her mum's manicure!

Then during the week, we wanted to bring her out to try swimming, as we've heard of the benefits of getting babies to swim (mental/physical development). Vanessa has been bringing Rachel for her sessions, and the latter absolutely enjoys it. Since Rosabelle loves bathing, and the place is a 10-minute walk from home, the nanny and I brought her there on Tuesday. But I didn't know they closed at 4 pm, so we made a wasted trip. We should have taken the hint from there that this was not going to work out for her, and we made another trip down yesterday. The whole session, including measurement of height/length (she measured 68cm and 8.2 kg - which means she has not put on much weight from the 8.15kg taken in KKH on 19 March - sure hope the scales here are wrong! Though she has increased in length from her 65.cm last measured). The swim was supposed to take 20 minutes, followed by a bath and lesiurely body massage for her.

However, when she was stripped naked and the assistant carried her to put her on the scales, she panicked - either because of stranger anxiety or she did not like the feeling of the cold scales against her body. Next, when the assistant sat her down and wanted to put the life buoy around her, she cried and I had to carry her. When we lowered her into the pod of water, she was ok, but not entirely relaxed nor enjoying as I could see her clutching tightly with her strong grips onto the front of her buoy.

And then, it happened. Three minutes into the swim, she lost balance and fell backwards (but her head did not dunk in as she had the buoy around her neck), but that was enough to make her feel she was losing control and she started bawling. She was inconsolable until I dished her out, and we paused for a few minutes before I tried putting her again. But she cried again, and this went on for the next try we did, and I decided it was enough before she started to develop a real fear of water.

So we bathed her, but they only had a shower, and she again cried because we never used a shower directly on her, but have been bathing her in the comfort of her bath tub, so even the bath was cut short. So, I had to carry her and pacify her whilst the nanny changed her - my clothes were all wet. Hopefully our daughter grows up with a love for the water like her Daddy and does not take after Mummy's non-swimming 'skills'! Maybe we'll try again a week later or something, and she has not been traumatised....poor thing.


The nanny remarked that Rosabelle seems to have a more sedated persnality and maybe prefers non-vigorous activities - haha, so cute!

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