My Little Gymnast

Today was Max's first day of gymnastics. I am so excited that Max gets to do this for so many reasons. Here are a few--1) It's rainy season, we NEED somewhere to get out (but stay inside) and do something to get energy out. 2) Blake no longer has Tuesdays to spend with us, so now we have something to look forward to each week. (I guess Blake wants us to have a roof over our heads and food to eat while he's in school.) 3) I think Max needs more structured activities in his life. I peeked in on him in nursery a few weeks ago and all the kids were sitting down singing and Max was running around in circles behind them. 4) We get to spend time with our friends. Five of Max's friends are in the same class! 5) I was denied the opportunity to become an Olympic gymnast when I was young, and I don't want to do the same thing to Max. (My mom told me I was too tall and didn't start early enough. I have the most depressing journal entry about it, with a tear stain on the page. I wanted to be Kim Zmeskal so badly! And by the way, it's okay Mom, I forgive you.) So, here's the set up. Once we arrived, Max was free to roam about and play on all the equipment. In addition to the regular gymnastics equipment (bars, vault, rings, etc. which are set up as a "safe environment" with lots of padding so kids can explore them) there are also slides, tunnels, trampolines, and LOTS of pads for the kids to climb on, jump off of, balance on, crawl through, hang over, and have fun on. Parents are in charge of their own child, and lucky Baby Jack either has to sit on the side in his car seat (hopefully sleeping, which is what he did today) or be bjourned. To mark the beginning of class we have parachute time. This is the structured part. Today the parents made waves with the parachute and the kids could run and jump in the middle. Max was in parachute heaven. He was running around like a mad man, jumping then falling down. Then we did stretches. Max touched his toes, straddled his legs, made a table (like a crab walk) and reached his hands high in the air. Then it was back to playing, whatever you want. Max ran straight for the slide and after going down once, he spotted the play kitchen set on the side for siblings who aren't in the class. He yelled "microwave!" and took off. I was a little worried that maybe gymnastics wasn't right for him. Like Jennie said, "I don't know why I'd pay for gymnastics when I can go play with the kitchen in the nursery at church for free." But don't worry. As soon as Max got all his button pushing out of the way, he was back on the equipment. He loved hanging on the bars, going down the slide, going through the tunnel, and especially jumping off EVERYTHING. At the end of class we did the parachute again. This time, the kids all sat in the middle and the parents ran in circles doing "Motor boat." We can't wait for next week. I know these are kind of stinky pictures, but I was having so much fun playing with Max, I forgot to take more. But don't worry, I'm sure there will be plenty to come!