Tumbling Lili

This weekend Lili started a toddler 'gymnastics' class with her little friend, Dakotah. I remember (before I had kids), wondering why Moms enrolled their munchkins in so many extracurricular activities and at such young ages...and I swore I would never do that as a parent. Yeah well, as Lili gets older I am finding myself drawn to all of the fun things I want to expose her to. I have no idea what she will like doing or what she will hate, but I know I want to give them all a chance and give her an opportunity to find her niche. Whether it's music or dance or gymnastics or tae kwon do...I don't really care. I just want her to have fun!

So anyway, right now we are trying out 'gymnastics'...if you can even call it that at this age. Basically it's 45 minutes of 2 year olds running through obstacle courses using similar equipment to what gymnasts would use...parallel bars, trampolines, balance beams, etc. 'Warm up' involves jumping down a long trampoline-like strip and then jumping about 5' down into a HUGE area filled with giant sponges. After getting themselves out of the tub-o-sponges, they have to climb on large, triangular 'blocks' and then somersault down them. After warm up it's time to hit the obstacle courses. The 1st involved a knotted rope that they had to swing from, walls to 'walk' themselves up into handstands, platforms for jumping and twirling, etc. The 2nd included climbing onto one of those vaulting horses and jumping off of it onto a mat, swinging on various parallel bars, walking along a balance beam and then jumping into a smaller tub of sponges. Finally the kids took turns on a set of 3 trampolines and the class ended with the kids getting a stamp on their legs and sanitizer in their hands.

Overall, Lili did great for her 1st class! Dakotah has been going to Gleason's since September, so she was excited to show Lili everything she has learned. There were a few things that Lili didn't want to do (like jump 5' into the sponges), but for the most part she gave everything a chance. She actually did awesome on the parallel bars and LOVED swinging on them. There was one that she had to hang from and then while hanging from it, she had to 'walk' up a wall until she was completely upside-down (still holding onto the bar of course). With just a little assistance from me, she was able to do it! By the end of the class she seemed a lot more comfortable and I can't wait to see how she's doing in a month or two!