Joshua's first collegiate class...

This one is definitely taking proud parental boasting to the next level...

Tonight, Jason and I enrolled Joshua in his first college class- music prep offered by Susquehanna University. It's for babies between 12-24 months old and is basically a singing circle for the mommies, where the babies occasionally dance and bang on some drum-like instruments that look like lollipops. There is also a part of the class involving bouncing balls to the music, but mostly it's about the parents singing and clapping and the babies looking on in amazement.

This was one of Joshua's first official interactions with other babies, and he did surprisingly well. He's definitely the youngest one in the class by several months, which I know later in life won't make much difference, but for now it spaces the kids out pretty drastically on their skill levels. Most of the other children were walking, although most weren't too far ahead of Josh based on what I saw today.

The highlight seemed to be a very spirited version of Ring Around the Rosie, and he particularly enjoyed the "we all fall down" part where we all crashed to the ground quickly. Then they added a new verse involving cows in the meadow and eating buttercups, which clearly rhymed with "up" and got us up off the ground. I have some studying to do on this one. Who knew there was a second verse? There was also a very funny song that he giggled at with fleas on his toes. I'm not sure if he was laughing at the song or how terribly I was screwing up the words. Regardless, he seemed to enjoy himself and that's all that matters.

He did surprisingly well interacting with the other children and seemed to enjoy the singing and clapping, especially when they sang about him. Apparently this is a weekly ritual (we're a little behind and must have missed all the instruction by missing the first two weeks of class--- everyone else seemed to know all the songs and what was coming next). But each child had a verse of something to the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man". One little boy had his first haircut today, so it was "Cohen is the haircut boy...." over and over again which he thought was very funny. (You're singing it in your head, aren't you?) Joshua was the sleepy boy because we had to interrupt his nap to go to music class and he was still rubbing his eyes when it came time for his verse. Elsa was the sneezing girl (of course, this was the one that Joshua picked to sit next to). There were a few others, but those were the highlights of that game.

So this music class will be every Monday until close to Thanksgiving from 5:00-5:30. Interestingly enough, everything is done on about the attention span of the babies, so we do one song for approximately 24 seconds and the switch. So the 30 minutes was packed with songs and I'm feeling a little pressure to do some word learning between now and next Monday! Just kidding- it's just the time with him, exposing him to something new, and giving him a little interaction with other kids close to his age that we thought would be beneficial. And I think it's going to work out nicely.

So, Susquehanna wouldn't have been my first choice (can you say expensive?) but we'll support him no matter where he decides to go.