Gymnastics: Session 4, Week 4

Peanut has really impressed me the past few weeks at gymnastics.  She has really come out of her shell socially, and is interacting quite a bit with the other kids.  She is great at encouraging others and is very athletic for a two year old.

This past week in lessons was light in attendance due to Thanksgiving.  Peanut did beautifully, and eagerly completed the assigned tasks with no issues.  Highlights from this week included:

- Parallel bars bear crawl by herself for the first time!
- Hands over head, feet together, jumping down the tumble track multiple times
- Improved straddle jumps on the trampoline
- Greatly improved straddle forward roll on the floor
- Handstand practice mostly by herself for the first time
- More confidence walking on the beam by herself
- No fear on the hops section of the high beam

Gymnastics: Session 4, Week 3

The past week or so has been exhausting.  Ben and I have been running ourselves ragged with very little down time.  Peanut is making things even tougher because she's sick and teething (all four molars, poor thing!) and has understandably been very irritable and is not sleeping well.  We are both ready for a break but work has been making that difficult.  Hopefully soon.

Thankfully, gymnastics went well again this morning even though afterward was a bit of a disaster.  Ben's grandma came to watch and had a good time seeing our kiddo doing tricks.  Peanut did everything today without issue and with a huge smile on her face, even though I had to wipe her nose 10,000 times during the 45 minute session.  She has really warmed up to everyone at the gym and is making friends, which makes me very happy.  I love seeing her interact with the other kids!

Newer items they/Peanut did in gymnastics:
Straddle forward roll on floor (pretty good!)
Handstands against a mat
V-Seat on the beam (we got it!)
Arabesque on the beam
Hops on the beam (she did it!)
Jumping with feet together and arms up on the tumble track (success!)

Gymnastics: Session 4, Day 2

Peanut was a rock star in lessons today!  She listened well, was excited to try everything, had a giant smile the entire time, and was very friendly.  She smiled and chatted and offered high fives to everyone.  She made her Mama incredibly proud, especially since she's been so shy around others the last 6 months or so.  Way to go kiddo!

On beam they did a v sit for the first time, I think that was the only new skill of the day.  Peanut did pretty well with it but needed a little help. 

So, so proud :)

Happy Halloween!

Peanut had so much fun trick-or-treating!  It was the first year we've taken her out and she had a blast!  I expected the fun to last for a few houses and for her to say, "all done", but all three of us went up and down one part of our street and she probably could have kept going.  I didn't want her out too much longer because it was cold and wet and her nose was running.  So after a half an hour of being outside, we came back home and let her hand out candy for an hour and a half to the other trick-or-treaters.  She had fun doing both parts and was oh so cute as Minnie Mouse.  I love that kiddo :).

Gymnastics: Session 4, Day 1

A lot of kids were having off days in gymnastics yesterday, but overall the group did a decent job.  They started off doing the obstacle course on floor and Peanut did awesome!  She rolled down the wedge mat in the tube, did back walkovers on the curved mat, did forward and backward rolls down another wedge mat, donkey kicks over french fry mats, and did the sack race jumping down the side.  She happily did that three times and would have kept going.

Then they went to bars.  She did everything they asked her to do, but she made some shrieking noises while she did it.  Forward roll on the first bar, holding herself up (with help) and kicking her legs up in pike on the parallel bars, and hanging and swinging on the high bar.  Then a cartwheel before starting again.  We went through almost three times.

After bars came beam.  The kids were supposed to either walk across the low beam and step over the pumpkins or hold onto parents hands and hop.  Peanut hopped okay but was very hesitant to walk over without help.  She did successfully complete the task a couple of times.  Then the kids were supposed to side step on the higher beam and Peanut did that okay although at times it turned into a bit of a shuffle.  Then they walked backwards across the second low beam.

From beam the group went to the trampoline.  Seat drops and safety stops and then we went to tumble track.  Peanut got two stamps at the end - a Happy Halloween stamp and a Happy Birthday one!