Waltzing with my baby

These days, Baby Girl loves to “dance” the waltz with me. While carrying her with my left arm, and she holding my thumb with her teeny-weeny fingers, we waltz while I hum the classic waltz tune that’s a staple in débutante’s dances. She likes the swirling and the turning, and I guess the humming.

This is repeated 4 or 5 times; otherwise she’ll get irritated and, like a drill sergeant-dance instructor, reach out for my thumb and insist for one more time…from the top! After 10 minutes or so, she starts to get sleepy and her head will just droop over my shoulder. And she’s off to dream land.

Gym…boree expensive

The four of us (Big Daddy, Mommy Princess, Baby Girl, and Yaya) went out yet again this week, this time at TriNoMa, partly to soothe Mommy Princess’s nerves (after getting stressed out sorting documents for our mortgage) and partly to…well, what the heck, for no real reason.

Anyway, we checked out the Gymboree branch there after passing by a cheaper, local (and much more cramped) day-care/playroom version. We had thought about doing some play time at the Serendra branch at some future date, just to see if Baby Girl likes it. But since we were at TriNoMa killing time, we decided to give it a try.

Mommy Princess managed to cajole the English-speaking staff to let Baby Girl try out the play room for five minutes. Since I was the only one with socks (and we certainly didn’t want to buy the expensive pair they’re selling), I was the designated playmate.

I must say the play room was clean and by the grinning face of Baby Girl, we knew she was having a good time, even though she was clinging on to me some of the time. She certainly enjoyed the monkey bars and didn’t go ballistic when I let her try the slide (assisted of course). But she seemed to be very interested to meet the other girl (and only “client” at that time) playing. The toddler was much more excited though, and had to be restrained, lest she got carried away in her attempt to hug my baby daughter.

If anything, I was the one who got exhausted after a very long five minutes. I had mixed emotions — joy, pressure, tension, excitement, stress — hoping that my baby enjoys the five-minute free playtime, worried I might trip and fall flat on my face (believe me, Gymboree is much more dangerous for clumsy fathers than children), worried that my daughter might suddenly make a scene, tense that the other girl might “attack” her, and elated that Baby Girl is having a great time. All in those long five minutes.

After our time was up, I was heating up and breaking a little sweat. Not to mention I had to speak English fluently with a neutral accent to fit the situation and the location (Gymboree made me feel like I’m in U.S. territory).

Baby Girl let out a little cry when it was all over. The verdict? She obviously liked it. Mommy Princess obviously liked it. I, well, let me know the rates. My mind was jumbled up as Mommy Princess rattled off with the prices, so this might not be accurate. But I think a five-year membership costs P3,600, which offers discounts on classes or playtime, or something like that. And if we enroll, Baby Girl gets unlimited play time during class days. We can enroll for a 12-week class for a Level 2 child (6-10 months) for P7,000 and get a discount on membership. Whatever it is, it wasn’t registering very well in my brain. Anything about P500 does something to my mental capacity to comprehend things. Gymboree is short hand for gym….boree expensive.

But knowing Mommy Princess, money is no object as long as I’m paying for it. I have thwarted most of her attempts to spend too much for our daughter (I’m like the “Daddy of All Killjoys”), and I’ll probably win this one too for now. At best, I’ll concede on the per-use rate of P350 for an hour of playtime (my golly, P350!).

I’m just bragging right now. If indeed playtime at Gymboree makes Baby Girl aglow and helps develop her social skills, I’ll gladly be a sucker for expensive playrooms and child development classes.

Blow up baby

 

 

We averted a disaster! Making an infant smile or laugh during a studio pictorial can be very challenging, to put it mildly. The parents at the next room were singing “boom-ta-rat-ta-rat!” at the top of their lungs just to get their baby to break out in laughter. Fortunately, we did not have to resort to “Wowowee!” level but it took all sorts of tricks (funny faces, feather tickling, funny sounds, “flying”, and pathetic pleas to smile) just to get Baby Girl to smile…a little.

As you can see, her photos from Blow Up Babies are adorable. We didn’t get an “lol” shot, but the angelic smile (the best she could muster under the circumstances) matches the fairy and angel themes. Besides, we got a membership package that gives us unlimited pictorials for one year. She’ll get the hang of it.

Home school

Of course, I’ve already designed Baby Girl’s 10-Year Plan. What are we parents for? I’m just kidding. Half-kidding. I admit Mommy Princess and I have long been making plans about Baby Girl — what she’d be like, how she’d dress up, what sports she’d take up, what kind of movies she’d appear in. Okay, I’m just kidding. They’re just items on our wish list, not her to-do list.

One of the things we do plan for Baby Girl is to home school her. We’ve been considering this seriously and after attending the home school conference held at our church, we got convinced and excited more than ever. I always felt I can give my child a much better education than the formal school system.

I think the school system puts too much focus on facts. They cram kids with too much information. No wonder they’re just stressed as we are! What children need to learn more, however, are skills and values. I love the idea that we can customize our daughter’s education based on her innate abilities and real inclinations as well as what we think she needs to learn in the real world. What she needs to develop is a love for learning, and unfortunately, most schools don’t do such a great job in this area.

I like all the stats enumerated at the conference. Home schooled kids on average outperformed the rest academically. Surprisingly, they are also more mature, polite, and sociable than their counterparts. Can you believe that? They have better social skills! That’s because they participate in more activities and interact a lot more with adults.

If I were to design a curriculum, this is what the basic outline would look like:

1. Reading skills
2. Writing skills
3. Math skills (arithmetic and algebra only)
4. Communication skills
5. Interpersonal skills
6. Money skills
7. Computer skills
8. Analytical skills
9. Creative skills
10. Physical skills
11. Basic science facts
12. Basic historical facts
13. Basic health and fitness facts
14. Basic home economics
15. Extracurricular stuff (art, music, sports)

As you can see, a lot of it are skills-based. Facts-based learning is also important — after all, they need to know the Earth is round — but the basics are enough. Other, more advanced facts can be learned on their own. Watching the Discovery Channel is far more interesting.

But the main take away from that conference is that we as parents are in the best position to make a positive impact on our child’s character — who she is and can be, not just what she knows and can do. The most important thing above skills and facts is character. I like the recommendation at the conference to conduct family worship, introduce a character trait every month, integrate values into everyday life, and mentoring children one on one. This will not only change them, but it will change us as well.