Gymnastics

Twisters is one of the local gymnastics, cheer and dance studios. They started a monthly program two months ago called Little Lunchers in which younger children get to come to the gym for a few hours and get exposed to gymnastics, have some fun and run off some energy. They typically don't allow kids younger than three to be in the program but since Lauren is potty trained and only a couple months away from three **insert tears** they said we could give it a try. Well, Lauren had gone to the first session and absolutely loved it! It was all she talked about for days afterwards and I told Jaime, our daycare provider, that if they had it again we would most certainly sign her up.

When I signed Lauren up for the second Little Lunchers they were also accepting registrations for their regular gymnastics classes. So, I talked to her teacher and asked if she thought she would be ready for something like that even though she's not three. The teacher encouraged me to do so and we started our first class a week ago Monday.

Now anyone who knows Lauren knows that she can be quite a bit of a shy bug. I fully expected me to spend all this money for a class only to have her collapse in the foyer of the gym and refuse to go into class.

I was SOOOO wrong!

The first night we got there late so she had to hurry up and get ready. She ran right into class and didn't even look back! I was shocked and thanked God she had made it past the foyer. Then, I watched her through the window and expected that at some point she would see me and come running for me. But she did not. I figured after class she would say she didn't ever want to go back. But she did not.

It had to be a fluke, I thought.

And then it was time for this week's class. And she was still excited. In fact, she couldn't wait to go. And I was all, "Huh?", "Who is this child?", and "What have you done with my Lauren?"

This week she was hanging upside down from the uneven bars and hanging from the rings. Seriously! My Lauren!

The change I've seen in her after just two classes has been amazing. She's come out of her shell a bit and I can see such a change in her confidence. My whole goal for this was that it would help her get ready for preschool this fall and if she just so happened to like it then that was just going to be an added bonus. We have eight more classes and I just can't wait to see what benefits she may get from this!