Baby Yoga

Miranda has started baby yoga classes!

I didn't have my camera on me, sorry!

These are run by Surestart, Yay for Surestart! I took her down to a local community centre, actually in a church, and a great deal further to walk to than I'd imagined! It started off with massage and the woman went to great efforts to show us her badge, as you have to be specially trained to be an infant masseuse. To be honest I was quite glad it was just massage because I was already tired from walking to the far side of South Park with 6.5kg of Miranda round my neck in the sling.

I got to cover her in olive oil! Quite bizarre, but apparently it is the best thing to put on new baby's skin (as opposed to synthetic oils, I suppose). And it doesn't smell too bad either. We got to do each leg, then each foot, then her prehensile toes and finally her tiny little ankles. She really enjoyed it! Lots of giggling and gurgling. It was extremely difficult to keep hold of a greasy little leg, particularly when the owner of the leg thinks it's hilarious to try and kick the trainee-masseuse or chew her own toes...

Miri was also fascinated by the other babies; there were three others there, all boys. Alfie, Ethan and Daniel. Alfie was only 11 weeks old, but absolutely huge, with a massive head. Good looking little boy but my deepest sympathies go out to his Mum! Daniel had blonde hair but nearly as spikey as Miri's! Miranda has seen plenty of other babies before, but only at Rhymetime where everyone is bouncing about and being noisy. This was far more calm and quiet (although the masseuse insisted on playing Enya!) and she got to really study them. She even grinned at Daniel.

After leg massage, we moved on to tummy massage. This apparently really helps to calm and relax babies and helps relieve colic. Well, DUH! I could have predicted the results really... Gently massaging small, oiled, excited babies in a downwards direction can only lead to one thing. Faaaaaaart! Very, very funny, four little babies all tooting in unison.

We only did a tiny bit of yoga, which involved bending her knees back towards her stomach. I do this to sort out trapped wind anyway, but of course this only exacerbated the group parping session. I'd love to take her back, but of course we will miss the next three weeks due to being in South Africa. Supposedly, if Miranda does a lot of this now, she should retain her baby flexibility. She loves chewing her feet at the moment, and I remember being able to do that when I was younger too. I can't do it comfortably any more though, and I feel I ought to!

Beautiful Bendy Baby!