Yesterday was Bren’s second Little Gym class. It started out pretty shaky since he wasn’t even willing to go into the gym for the first half of the class!!! We sat and watched the kids and parents do their thing through the windows. Bren had fun watching them and talking about it. Every few minutes one of us would ask him if he wanted to go in there and play too. No, no, no some more. About 20 minutes into the 45 minute class his answer was a hesitant no. Five minutes later, the owner (who was manning the desk) came over and asked him if he wanted to go play and he finally said yes. And then off he ran into the room to go play. We have always said he has a 1/2 hour warming up period and that has been so consistent through this past year.
Once in the gym, Darrell and I stood by where the rest of the class was enjoying a giant parachute. The kids were put on top as it was shaken, the parents held it up as the kids ran underneath it, then finally everyone got underneath it and sang songs. It was my favorite activity from my nanny Little Gym days and I was sad to see Bren not participate. I hope they do the parachute stuff again soon- it’s so much fun! He wandered around the empty half of the room instead of coming over to the crowded group area with us. I noticed within the first minute of being in the gym room that he put his hands briefly to his ears a few times like it was too loud in there. That got my initial attention but in only a few minutes the parachuting was over and he was beside us again.
After that, Bren seemed much more like any other kid there. He played on and with the different items and interacted with the other kids some (though his issue is not the kids, it’s adults and crowds in general). He continued to shy away from any adults but he didn’t get upset when one tried to talk to him- he’d just turn his face into me. They end all the gym classes with 5 minutes of playing with bouncy balls and then a couple minutes where the instructor blows bubbles. These are Bren’s 2 favorite activites! I figured out the bubble-blowing is to get the kids back to the group area for the end of class good-bye song. Very clever of them.
In the end, I was happy with his progress because of 4 things:
1. Once we were in the gym room, Bren allowed us to clap along with the class. He typically gets really mad at us if we clap or sing along. Could it possibly be a noise issue?
2. He didn’t cry and was happy just about the entire time we were there- greatly improved over last week. He was obviously excited to be there and enjoyed himself whether he was watching or participating.
3. He approached an instructor and gave her 2 balls when it was time to put them away. He got a booming “Good job, Brendan!” LOL.
4. At the end of class, an instructor approached us and told us she saw improvement already.
We have the rest of May in the Parent & Child class (4 more sessions I think) and we signed him up for the 10 week summer Child Only class, which is 3-5 year olds. Perhaps being among the youngest will give him some good role models. The summer session ends immediately before my due date.
*****
As for potty training, he goes and sits willingly on the potty at times (when it’s his idea) but hasn’t yet peed again.