It's Not Called Gymnicetics

January 2006 - Almost 2

     When Sarah was a tiny girl I enrolled her in a parent and child gymnastics class. As the saying goes, she took to it like a duck to water.   In the six years since her first class, she's progressed through the toddler and preschool levels and even spent a year attending an invitation only "advanced preschool" class, which may sound impressive except for the fact that I'm pretty sure the kids who were invited were considered  "advanced" because they were potty trained and followed directions most of the time. For the last year or so she's been on a non competitive team called the "Shooting Stars" and she's enjoyed it, except for the non competitive part.

Sarah on Saturday

    The Program Director came to Sarah's class this week and evaluated the girls to see who might be ready to move up to the competitive team. This was a surprise evaluation for the girls (and their parents), which was both good and bad.  It was good because she (we) didn't have to worry about if for days ahead of time but it was bad because once Sarah realized what was going on (about 15 minutes into class) she got really nervous.  It was a tough night. We both thought she had done well enough, but not knowing what they were looking for or how many girls were going to be asked to move up made the next few days a bit anxious. Sarah had a lesson scheduled for Saturday and as soon as her coach saw her sitting on the wall she walked over and scooped her up and said "Well, do you want to know how you did?"  Given the fact that I'm writing about this, it should come as no surprise that she made the team. Finally.

      Gymnastics is tough, but the things that are tough about it (at least from a parent perspective) are no different than any other competitive sport.  I believe it's a universally acknowledged truth that wherever two or more parents are gathered together in pursuit of their child's athletic advancement there will be anxiety and strife.  It's tough out here in the trenches of parenthood and I don't remember any of this competitive athletic stuff being covered in the hundreds of  "How to Raise the Best Child" books that I've read over the years.  It's been a long few months at our house gymnastically speaking (see that "Finally" in the above paragraph).  That's why on the way home from practice on Saturday afternoon, Joel agreed with me that rather than wait until her birthday to give Sarah the American Girl Gymnastics doll that was sitting in my closet, we'd give it to her to celebrate that's she made the competitive team. She's most definitely earned it with all the hard work she's put in the last few months AND she still has a great deal of hard work ahead of her before she competes this fall. Congratulations, Sarah Grace!  Your mom and dad (and even your brother) are very proud of you!!