Growth Spurts
We had our 2nd Gymnastics class this week. It started off much like the first; Bobbin didn't want to do the warm up exercises. She didn't want me to leave her. She wanted me to keep holding her hand. We didn't end up doing much warmup since I'm technically not allowed on the mats, so she and I sat on the sidelines and watched. When it was time to line up and follow the coach to the first activity, she was starting to ease into it all. They started with the bar and she did some hanging. Then we moved to the trampoline and she did some jumping. All was well until she got her got her foot jumped on at the end of the trampoline by another 3-year-old. Not a malicious thing; just an accident. But it hurt, and it also set back her confidence. However she got back up and got back into it, and then the third exercise was the "obstacle course" and Bobbin loves that. I don't actually know what it's called, but it's set up like an obstacle course; different each week, apparently. There's a tube to crawl through on an incline; a ladder placed horizontally across two mats to balance across; two stacks of mats over which the kids "monkey jump"; a "mushroom" where they have to stand and balance on one leg; and a ramp down which they do a forward roll (somersault). Bobbin loves it, and was quite enthusiastic, crawling, jumping, balancing, and rolling with the rest of them and announcing loudly "I LOVE GYMNASTICS CLASS" with each round of the course until she had accident #2, where she landed funny on her fingers in one of her "monkey jumps". That was the end for her, and there were only a couple of minutes left of class anyway.
On the way home I asked Bobbin if she liked gymnastics today. She replied with a firm "no". I asked her if she wanted to go back next week. She responded with a pained look on her face and said "No. I don't want to go back ever again. I want to do soccer. Mommy, lets go back to soccer. Do you like playing soccer wif me?"
And so it is, that after two gymnastics classes, Bobbin has decided she's finished. I'm totally cool with that. I don't want to make her do something that makes her miserable. I told her I was VERY VERY proud of her for giving it a really good try and being very brave and trying something new, and that if she ever wanted to try again we could but if she didn't, that was ok too.
Tim's going to build her a balance beam in the back yard (low to the ground ;-)) and I pulled up my exercise ball from the basement and she had a blast this afternoon in the living room rolling back and forth on it, and climbing over it, and doing "handstands" with it. "THIS is GYMNASTICS, Mommy!" she proclaimed happily, grinning ear to ear, as she launched herself forward on the ball until her hands touched the floor and her feet were in the air. I couldn't disagree with that!
This afternoon we went to the Train Restaurant for lunch, and played on the climber outside the restaurant afterwards. Bobbin took two spills on the soft rubberized "turf" under the climber as she was running around it. She scraped the tip of her nose on one of the falls. She spent a good hour swinging on the bars over the slide and then letting go and launching herself down the slide. after that we headed out to the mall to buy new shoes and that's when I found out that her feet have grown an entire size since July 5th, which was when we last purchased a pair of shoes for her. An entire size in 2 1/2 months. She went from an 8 1/2 to a 9 1/2. It occurred to me then that some of these trips and scrapes and falls and spills that she's been experiencing with seemingly increased frequency of late, are probably due to a growth spurt. I'll have to check her height tomorrow :-) We ended up getting two pairs of shoes. She got her first pair of "big girl" running shoes - shoes with laces just like Mommy's and Daddy's. Of course, they are white with pink sparkly stripes. By end of day Monday, after a day at school they'll be grey all over. And by the end of day saturday, they'll be completely black from the artificial rubber turf at the indoor soccer field, which is what Bobbin decided she wants to do instead of Gymnastics.
She also got her first real pair of "party" shoes: a pair of black patent shiny dress shoes for special occasions, of which we have several coming up. And because they were on sale for 50% off. Otherwise they would have been added to the Santa list :-) They look very formal and dressy but the have the sole and tread of a running shoe, which is a requirement for anything Bobbin's going to put on her feet, regardless of whether she's wearing a dress with it or not :-). We've got two cousin birthdays coming up; at least one friend's birthday; Halloween; picture day at Preschool; Thanksgiving; Santa Pictures; special outings (we'll probably do the Nutcracker again this year; Bobbin loved it so much last year!), and of course Christmas. Plenty of wear, and by then her feet will probably have outgrown them again anyway :-)
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