Thing One graduated from Gymboree this Saturday. What's Gymboree? Clothes? NO! It's been the best mommy and me experience for my kids and I. When I was a preschool teacher way before kids I remember hearing parents talk about the nice experience they had taking their children their and all the stuff they did. Then came the time I was home alone with my first baby, going bonkers. All of my friends pretty much had school age children or teenagers, so I had no idea how to connect with them at this time in my life. I really felt isolated and in dire need of letting my inner social butterfly to GET OUT.
I hopped on to the website for Gymboree Play and Music out of curiosity. I searched to see where the nearest facility was and just to observe. They offered a free first time class and it so happened they had one for infants. I had to get out, I had developed carpal tunnels which was painful, the baby crying, and feeling isolated, well I just had to.
I walked into a brightly colored space with Thing One tightly wrapped in my arms. I was greeted by the biggest brightest smile from Kristen. She was the teacher on Saturdays and for the next three some odd years for my darling children. The first day we attended Thing One was 3 months old and he was a fidgety, crying stressed out baby. Kristen explained that sometimes the stimulation caused all that crying and that it would go away eventually. It did and he eventually came to think of Gymboree as his home away from home. We all did. This experience was not just for him but for Mami and Me.
In the three odd years that we have been going faithfully to Gymboree we developed life long friendships with many of the families. Thing One has grown in those years and learned so much while he was there. He rolled over on the first time while in class. He cruised around the foamy mats and did his famous army crawl. He mastered climbing on and off the structures, which I'm sure is why he never fell off the bed, he knew how to do it right. He sang his first words, only to babble incessantly at the age of 2. He learned to make friends and take turns. He lost his fear of crawling through a tunnel and graduated to leaping off the climbing structure.
So when his teacher left Gymboree it felt like it was time to go. The class didn't have the same feel after Teacher Kristmas (As Thing One would refer to her) was gone. I started to notice that Thing One had no real interest in the classes and well we already had started soccer and many more activities were opening up to his age in the community. I decided to pull him out of the program and take on other challenges. It was a hard decision to make. He simply outgrew Gymboree and he was now becoming a preschooler.
His last day was this Saturday. I had a rush of memories and all that had gone on in the three years that had transpired. All very positive and I realized it was time to let go. I had some tears that morning. My baby boy was now a preschool boy. Thank you to my Gymboree family! You will never know how much sharing we have done watching our kids grew together. On to the next chapter...
 |
| First class 11/2007 |
Last but not least...His last review at Gymboree...we will miss you Gymbo, thanks for all the memories, friendship, and family!
