Max had his first music class with Mommy yesterday! There's nothing like a room full of 14 other babies, all babbling and "singing" along with a VERY energetic teacher! Max and Mommy both learned some very interesting things at music....like:
1. Three month old babies need a little time to get used to this "music class" thing. We were sitting next to our new friend Baby M., and her Mommy and Daddy. Baby M is only one day older than Max, and they were the two youngest in the class. Many of the other babies were sitting up, crawling around, or standing. Which meant that they could easily make NOISE with all of the instruments! Drums, bells, and maraca shakers definitely took Max and Baby M by surprise at first. Suddenly Baby M started to wail, and poor little Max took one look at the baby chaos around him (13 crawling, cooing, toy-throwing, instrument-playing babies and one screaming baby sitting right next to us, plus a big smiley teacher with exaggerated gestures and a very happy singing voice) and he completely turned his body away from the class and attempted to bury his little face in my shoulder. All of a sudden it became VERY clear that I was learning an important mommy lesson....as I looked down and saw his little bottom lip stick WAY out and start to tremble. I had never seen this reaction from him before! Poor baby was scared and totally overstimulated! Immediately Baby M's mommy and I said to each other "I think they're a little young for this class!". I brought Max in close to me, and turned him around so that he could only see me and not the rest of the class. I was ready to stand up and walk away from the noise, but he slowly started to calm down. I kept him really close to me, and I could see him relax and start to explore with his eyes. I sang softly in his ear, and when he started to move his arms and legs with excitement, I turned him around and sat him in my lap. He even gave the music teacher a big smile when she walked by, singing and banging her music sticks together. Pretty soon, Max was laying on his blanket in front of me, looking around at all of the commotion.
2. There are lots of ways to introduce Max to different textures and sounds. He LOVED the song with the scarves, and grabbed at the scarf each time I brought it close to him. He got very quiet as the scarf brushed his face, and smiled as it tickled his arms. He even held on tight to the bell that we had, and helped me to shake it along with the music. I was so proud of him! We played with cotton ball "clouds" and felt how soft they were against his feet, his cheek, his fingers. And we learned so many new songs that we can sing at home.
3. Max's music teacher is one cool chick. She paid close attention to the names of all of the babies, and sang different songs using everyone's name! At the beginning of class, she goes around the room and asks each Mommy to introduce their baby and say how old they are. For instance, "Hi, I'm Kim, and this is Max. He'll be three months old on Saturday". Then the entire class responds "Yay Max!" and claps for him! You can imagine how funny this is when it happens 15 times....it's like a baby AA meeting...."Hi Max!"
4. Music is a very popular class. So popular in fact, that they now have THREE classes on one day, because it's such a hit. Apparently they turned away 9 mommies from one class last week because it was too full. What does that mean? Well, we had to get there about an hour early to sign in and reserve our spot. Even then there was only one spot left in the parking lot. As we were arriving and unloading the stroller from the car, other mommies were frantically unloading their babies and yelling to each other...."I can't talk now, I have to go sign in for music class!" There I was, trying to get Max's stroller situated as fast as possible so that I could race the other mommies to the door to make sure that we'd have a place on the list! It's a tough world out there.....I even went in and threw our blanket down to reserve a spot on the floor before I headed out to grab a quick lunch at Starbucks!
5. Mommy is a show-off. Max has been doing so well with tummy time, that I wanted to give him a chance to see Music class from that perspective. Once he had calmed down and was feeling more comfortable, I put him on his tummy so that he could have a good look around. And maybe to show everyone else how advanced he is....he heh he!
We will definitely be returning to music class next week! I think Max might like a tambourine or a drum instead of those darn bells though!
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