Anna did a flip over the bar at gymnastics today all by herself!  Wish I had video, but I snapped two pics while she was doing it:

It’s amazing to see the progress since she started in April, about two and a half months ago.  She wouldn’t push up on the bar at all when she first started, definitely wouldn’t flip over on her own.  She also could barely push her back off the floor when trying to do a backbend (bridge) and now can push up so her head is off of the floor.  She can almost kick up to vertical in a handstand too, though she doesn’t get the bottom leg all the way up yet.  Here’s one she did at the park the other day.

They learn so quick at this age!  And she’s still enjoying it too which is great.

We’re packing up today to head off to Seattle tomorrow.  We’ll be gone for two weeks.  I’ll try to blog from there but probably won’t.  My blogs are few and far between these days…

See this photo?

(It’s not great, I know. I took it with my cell phone and had to zoom in which brought the quality WAY down.)

Anyway, I took this pic and she saw me take it. She went back around through the obstacle course that was setup and climbed back up on the vaulting table and yelled across the whole gym “MOMMY! TAKE A PICTURE!” Oh how I wish I had my good camera. She NEVER wants me to take a picture! Luckily, her class (of only her and one other little girl) was the only class in the gym. Ah, the things that come out of the mouths of little ones.

Anna had her last gymnastics class in her Preschool 1 class this past Tuesday and will start Preschool 2 on Monday.  Here is some video of her class…it’s not terribly exciting, but I found it hilarious towards then end when the little girl who went before Anna on the higher bar dropped down off of it on her butt instead of her feet.  You can hear everyone laughing.

Anyway, here is the video from her class:

At the end of her class she got a medal for being promoted to the next class.  Her gymnastics school makes a big deal when anyone gets promoted and they stood Anna up on one of the balance beams and had everyone clap for her.  However, I think all the attention freaked her out a bit and she started crying and said she didn’t like the medal…but as soon as we were off the floor she wanted to wear it and didn’t take it off all night.  Here’s the video where she gets her medal.

Here’s a video from Anna’s t-ball game this past weekend. It was her 3rd game and the best so far. She ran every time (though one time she tried to run past 3rd to go to Grandma who was videoing) and did great hitting the ball. She even caught some balls (ok, well she ran after them and picked them up off the ground after they stopped rolling) and threw them to first base, but we didn’t get that on camera. I was very proud of her though.

Here’s two new Anna’isms from today:

Anna: Mommy, you’re hot!
Me: What do you mean? Why am I hot? (…as I wonder where she could have possibly heard that phrase from..)
Anna: Cuz you were in the heater.

…mmhmm…

We were in the bathroom brushing her teeth before bed and she has two cups that she drinks water out of that were sitting on the counter..

Anna: I downloaded this cup but it was too small (as she picked up one cup) so I downloaded this cup and it was just right!
Me: What do you mean? What does download mean?
Anna: It means I downloaded it!

Well, that cleared it up completely for me….and I guess my girl is truly destined to be a geek just like her Mommy and Daddy.

Anna has been doing SO GREAT in her gymnastics class.  She listens and does what the teacher tells her.  It amazes me since she’s always had a hard time listening and doing what she’s supposed to in every other activity she’s done.  I’m so proud of her!  She’s really picking up on things too and loves practicing in the living room.  She’s even started trying to do handstands on her own.  They teach them in her class by having them climb with their feet up a wall like this:

..but she has started trying to do them on her own without the wall.  Here’s a video:

Sorry, crappy quality. I took it with my cell phone.

So today they got their sheets that tell the parents what class to sign their kid up for and Anna was already promoted to the next class! From Preschool 1 to Preschool 2! I know part of it is age, but part of it is also skill and she picks things up so fast. She’s only been at this gymnastics school since the beginning of April. I was so proud of her! Her teacher (who I LOVE! She’s awesome with the kids.) told me that she’ll get a medal at her last class. All kids who move up get a medal, though I think she might be the only one in her class. I’ll get lots of pics.

Here’s a video that I compiled from today. In the first part it’s kind of hard to find her. Her group is in the back corner of the gym (it was too far to zoom way in) and she’s in a blue/pink leotard.

Check out Anna’s handstand!  Not bad, eh?  (They teach a beginning handstand at gymnastics by having the kids “climb the wall” with their feet.)

I’ve recently started making hairbows for Anna. It’s interesting to see my progression from the first hairbow I made (which I don’t have a picture of) to the ones I’m making now. I think I’m getting pretty good. I don’t think I’ll ever make any to sell, but I do enjoy making them for her…and boy does she have a lot of hairbows now… Today I made 6 to add to her growing collection. Anyway, here are a bunch of the better ones I’ve made. Enjoy! :)

Anna was talking about how I needed to stay on the couch when she falls asleep so that the monsters wouldn’t get me and since she was being so animated I grabbed my phone and took this video.  She talked about a whole bunch of other random stuff too.  When she started talking about the Easter Bunny she almost stumped me with one of her questions.

Stubborn Father + Stubborn Mother = One extremely stubborn child who would rather throw her bath toys in the trash than put them in the bucket they belong in.  Well, now she has no more bath toys to play with.  *Sigh*