Following our first trial class at Baby Jumper Gym (see Trial Class at Baby Jumper Gym), Darius attended his next trial class at The Little Gym on Saturday, located at the Forum Shopping Mall along Orchard Road.

On our way there, we had lunch at Burger King. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very pleasant meal. First, the staff got confused with my orders, overcharging me for over three dollars. I tried to explain the discrepancies to her but she kept insisting otherwise, until her supervisor intervened and returned me back the money.

As for Catherine, she had wanted to wash her hands in the female restroom, but was barred by a maid who was ‘guarding’ the entrance, replying ‘No. Cannot. Wait.’ rudely when Catherine asked to only wanting to wash her hands. Beyond the door was a room consisting of another cubicle and a sink, but she and her mistress chose to occupied the entire restroom to themselves. Catherine could vaguely see the lady carrying her naked son (about 4 to 5 years old already) and washing him over the basin. They weren’t customers at Burger King in the first place but came here instead of the other bigger restrooms at the mall next door.

On another note, we spotted a bird loittering in the restaurant, picking up whatever food that was lying around. It took quite a while before the bird was noticed by the staff and chased away. It’s quite surprising to see a bird which managed to slip into a fast food restaurant undetected.

BK = Bird Kingdom?

We arrived at The Little Gym at 3.20pm, and did a quick registration before the three of us entered the gym barefooted. For this 4 to 10 months class, a maximum of two adults are allowed to accompany each child. It was a rather big gym, with another 9 or so babies with us.

Name tags for babies coming for the trial class. Forgot to bring our digital camera so pardon the blurred pictures from my phone. ^^|

We were seated in a full circle and the instructor started off with a Hello Song, followed by some movement of the babies’ hands. The first song played was Darius’ favourite ABC Song. What’s amusing is that instead of concentrating or enjoying the song, he turned around to find out where the source of the music was. Catherine and I were commenting how differently Darius was behaving compared to the other babies. We are not sure if it’s a good thing or not though.

Moving on, we were also taught different methods of carrying our babies so that we could strengthen parts of their bodies which would aid him in crawling. There were also some interesting group games, and we were glad most of the adults there were very sporting and had much fun as us. Probably except those whose children kept fussing and crying throughout the entire class.

When it was time for a short free-and-easy gym sesson, we mentioned Darius’ progress to the instructor that he could already stand and walk quite well with our support, but could only crawl backwards. She stressed that it would still be very important for him to learn to crawl properly, because it will aid his eye-hand coordination, which will be essential in his future tasks such as holding a pen.

We have read reports by doctors about the importance of crawling, but have also read feedback from people in forums sharing their personal experiences, that their development was not hindered by their skipping of the crawling stage.

Despite the differences in opinions, we will continue to help Darius with his crawling, using the exercises learnt from these two trial classes. Hopefully we would be able to master the crawling and walking skills simultaneously.

When the class ended, we decided to hold on to signing up for the term, as we had wanted to at least attend another trial class at another gym first. This gym is very close to our house but due to overwhelming response, our earliest date would be one or two weeks later (though I suspect some parents might back out if the Influenza A matter gets worse).

After the class, we walked around the shopping mall and wanted to let Darius sit on one of the coin-op rides, but we realised the seat was still too long for him. Maybe next time. ^^|

"Do you know I have not even taken the basic theory test yet?"

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