At Anna’s gymnastics class today I noticed that she wasn’t listening very well or doing what she was supposed to be doing.  It was the first time in awhile that there were more than 2 or 3 kids in her class…there were 5 today..so I don’t know if that’s the case or if she was getting a little bored.  In any case, she really didn’t listen very well at all which was very frustrating.  However, I did notice that she seem pretty far ahead of the other kids in her class.  The only time she needed help with anything was on her backwards roll down the incline mat and her instructor asked her several times to demonstrate something for the other kids, which was really cool.

Throughout the whole class I debated with myself on whether to ask her instructor if Anna could go ahead and move up to the Preschool 3 class.  I think they generally don’t move the kids until the end of the session, but the session just started (week 3 of an 8 week session) and this is our last one before we move, so I thought maybe they’d make an exception.  Plus, Anna does seem to be doing pretty well and I want her to continue to learn new things.  So at the end of the class I started to ask her instructor and before I could get the question out she told me to go ahead and bring her to the Preschool 3 class next week, that she watched Anna and she thinks Anna definitely needs to be moved up.  So YAY!  I didn’t even really have to ask.  The Preschool 3 class is the one I guess she would have skipped if she would have been able to start the pre-team at the beginning of next session.

Here’s a video of Anna doing handstands and cartwheels in the living room today.  They’re getting better.  The last cartwheel in the video is pretty good, I think!  :)

(Sorry about the poor video quality.  I recorded it with my Blackberry.)

I feel like this blog is turning into “all gymnastics all the time”…lol..

Today after Anna’s gymnastics class I was talking to her instructor (who is AWESOME) about the preschool open gym thing they are starting back up.  She told me after that to be sure to let Anna’s new gym in WA (because we’re moving back for those who didn’t know..) know that they were going to move Anna up to pre-team!  I was like “WHA..??????”  I had no idea that that was even an option, let alone that Anna, at 3 years old, was about ready for it.  Craziness.  So I was pretty floored, and it makes me even more sad to leave because her current gym is just awesome.  I’ll be hardpressed to find one that’s equally as good.

Anna, however, has just continued to improve really quickly.  She’s only done gymnastics for about 4 months (since April 2009).  In that time she has gotten a full bridge, with her head off the floor and everything.  When she first started she barely got her feet off the ground doing a handstand or cartwheel and now her handstands getting closer to vertical and her legs are a bit straighter and just today in her class she did a straight legged cartwheel..a really high one at that.  I was shocked.  She can sometimes do a backwards roll down the cheese mat.  She can flip over the bar…  I’m just amazed at how far she’s come in such a short time.  Tonight she was showing my dad a handstand and she kicked so hard that she started to fall over forward and actually tucked her head and did a forward roll out of it!  Before, if she actually kicked hard enough to fall over…which very rarely happened…she’d just flop over to the side or onto her back.  That shocked both me and her speechless.  Anna just kind of had a look like “what happened?”  Heh..  Kids just learn so fast.

So anyway, I think it’s probably hard for anyone who is not a parent to understand, but all these little things just make me SO SO PROUD.  I can feel myself just beaming when she finally “gets” something.  I don’t know if she has any exceptional talent or not…of course, as her mom, *I* think she does…OF COURSE!  But I’m really excited to see where all of this takes her.  I’m trying my best not to tell her how to do things at home because I don’t want her to think of gymnastics as work yet.  It’s all fun right now and I want to keep it that way.  But gosh…to be told that they wanted to put her on pre-team, which I guess would mean skipping the next level of preschool class, that just floored me.  I’m still really shocked by it all.  I’m just so proud of her.  :)

Check out this backbend Anna did yesterday!

This was her backbend at the beginning of June (so a little less than 2 months ago):

Good progress, huh?  I haven’t helped her at all with it.  I read somewhere to not help with the backbends, that if you force it before they’re ready (for under 5 years old)  it could cause damage.  I even noticed in her gym class that her teacher only puts her in the position to push up and then lets Anna push up on her own.  I don’t think the teacher has ever pulled her into a backbend.  So Anna has pretty much figured it all out on her own.  I was really amazed when she pushed up so high on the trampoline yesterday.

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.

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.)

Hi. It’s me, Anna. I wanted to write a post all about my gymnastics class yesterday but when I tried to type it out it looked like:

slkjdf s;dljsks lsdks;alksd jdsfjiwfnapan van3;3l6j 2.

..so instead I decided it would be a better idea to dictate to my mommy and let her type it out. Don’t get me wrong, I have some mad computer skills for a 3 year old, but I just haven’t quite learned to spell yet. That’s on Mommy’s to-do list for next week.

Anyway, yesterday I went to my second gymnastics class and Mommy brought her camera so we could share the pictures with everyone. I got to do cool things, like this funny crab walk:

And then see the instructor at the top of the picture teach us proper stretching techniques? Yeah, I wasn’t too interested in doing that. We’re still working on my listening.

I made a new friend who didn’t like to listen either. We decided to lay on our bellies and talk about girl stuff.

Here’s the teacher helping me do a bridge (Mommy calls it a backbend).

I made a pretty good bridge didn’t I??

My favorite thing was jumping on the trampoline. I get lots of practice at home so I was really good! Right here the teacher told me to hold my hands up high while I jump.

And then they taught us how to jump and then sit. Mommy and Daddy were really surprised that I did it because I would never do it on my own trampoline.

And then we had to pretend to be a dog and jump. At one point I was jumping on my feet and flew through the air and landed on my hands and knees…on purpose. I think I could hear Mommy and Daddy hold their breath while I was flying through the air.

This is how my group traveled to different activities. We were a train!

And then we got to jump off of a big mat and hold our hands up high above our heads.

Then we got to practice our forward rolls. I can do it really good and don’t need any help at all (even though it looks like the teacher is helping me). I do them at home all by myself!

Here I am getting ready to go through the tunnel in the obstacle course. I like to stop and motion everyone behind me to get in front of me. Mommy and Daddy were a little baffled when I did that. I’m just a nice person, what can I say?

Here I am climbing up the first mountain. These mountains were really tough to climb up!

See me in the foam pit! My absolute most favorite thing is the foam pit. I like to call it the swimming pool too. Mommy and Daddy gave me a big talk about staying with my group and not leaving to go play in the foam pit by myself like I did last time….but I forgot and I “swam” to the other side.

I finally climbed back across when I noticed that I would get to jump on the really long trampoline.

This was really fun!!

TA DA!

Thanks for reading about my gymnastics class. I love it and can’t wait to go back next week! I told Mommy and Daddy that I will be a better listener next time. :)

(I apologize for the quality of these photos. No Flash + Indoors = Grainy Photos.)