Once Isla was 8 weeks old I decided that we needed to start doing an organised activity together and on the recommendation of one of my best friends I took Isla for a trial at Gymboree for a Baby Play class. Gymboree is designed to introduce your baby to new sights, sounds and sensory experiences. It's all bright colours, fun music, puppets and best of all as far as most of the babies were concerned lots of BUBBLES!
The one I went to is in Croydon and run by the lovely Emma. She adores all the babies that come her way and she was always able to give you the benefit of her opinion re anything kid related as at the time I joined she had 2 under 3's herself (mad, lovely woman!). The sessions are once a week and last 45 minutes. There is generally always a theme, so I think one week was disco and we all had to dance with our babies, it was really fun and when I came away it gave me ideas for when I was at home with Isla.
One of our best moments at Gymboree, and this is going to sound incredibly mummish (I know this isn't a word!), was when Isla had only just learned to roll over and she did it in front of the whole class and everyone cheered. I couldn't imagine being so excited over such things when I was pre-family but once you've had children, every milestone they reach feels like such an achievement.
I soon persuaded my NCT friends to join Gymboree, which was great as I got £5 per head referral fee and we used this as the start of our kitty for a mum's night out! It was brilliant getting together with my mummy friends on a weekly basis at Gymbo, as apart from the babies playing we all got to have a catch up too.
Gymboree is a brilliant way to have fun with your baby and also to make new friends. The web address is below, hopefully you will be able to find one somewhere near you!