Gymnastics

Aidan started gymnastics three weeks ago.  She is only going one hour per week because I did not want to "waste" money.  After the first week and watching her little smile stay pasted on her face for the entire hour, I'm confident in the decision to sign her up.  Clearly it's not a waste of time.

She is no Shawn Johnson or Dominique Dawes in the making, to be sure.  She's not wiry like she probably needs to be to actually take to the sport.  But that is not why I enrolled her.  I just wanted her to be active and start to be aware of what her body can do.

She has a fantastic group of teachers (plaid pants) who make everything seem really cool and exciting.  And they have a theme they follow every week, like the barnyard or the beach.  They also gave the participants charts and start stickers, and every week they get to put stickers on the skills they learned that week.

So, it's only been three weeks, but so far, she wakes up early on Wednesday and puts on her footless tights and leotard right away.  Her lesson isn't until 10:15, so she is dressed up this way for a while.  When we get into the car, she encourages me to go faster:  "...or we're gonna be late, Mom, and I can't be late for gymnastics!"  We arrive, she places her shoes and jacket in her cubby, and the smile appears on the face and stays for an hour.  What mom could have a problem with that?