Top Of Her Game

I don't believe I've mentioned before that all three of my girls take gymnastics classes. I think I've mentioned going to gymnastics, but haven't really talked about it. Sonya has been going since she was 2 1/2, Lana since she was a baby and Georgia before she was even born. Although, they didn't actually start the classes until they could walk. Still, we've been doing it for a while. They all love going and get excited when it's "their day" for gymnastics. If they didn't love it so much we would not go, because it's starting to cost us an arm, leg and part of a hip. It is the only extracurricular thing they do. My kids will never be big enough to play most sports competitively, but gymnastics is one thing they could end up doing seriously. It's for short girls! Move over Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin, here come the Dadekian ladies! Especially Lana who is such a peanut and seems to be the best at it.

About four months ago, I moved Sonya to a different class than the Thursday one we had been taking. It was a different day and time that worked better with the little girls' naps. It was also a bit of a tougher class for her, which she needed, but was not happy with. Sonya is the type of kid who some things come VERY easily to. So when something does not, she gets frustrated, almost immediately. This class was something she wasn't used to and they did do some harder things. I thought it was great. She cried every time we went. FOR A MONTH. However, she always wanted to go. I will give that to her. She may get frustrated when she can't do something right away and cry, but she still wants to do it until she gets it. There was one part of class that she was particularly upset about; Climbing the rope.

Some of you may remember the rope we had to climb in gym class when we were kids for P.E. Same kind of rope. This one drops into a giant foam pit. The little kid classes use it to swing on, but the bigger kids try climbing it. Some kids in her class could do it and some couldn't, but they all try. There was one day she got pretty far up, but then looked down and got scared. When she started to come back down, she came down too fast and rope burned her hands. That was enough to keep her from trying to hard for about another two months. After that time, I made a deal with her. Whenever she did reach the top of the rope and rang the bell that hung from the ceiling, whatever day that was, whether it was in 10 days or 10 months I would take her to Menchie's for some frozen yogurt. That was three months ago.

This past Tuesday, we went to her class. She's well past the point of being upset when she goes and can do just about everything her instructor, Alex, asks her to. The one thing she hasn't gotten past is the rope. In her defence they don't do it every week. Usually it's an every other week thing. The last time they did it, she got thisclose. Unfortunately, it was the week we were having swim lessons in the morning. I think that combined with the 45 minutes of gymnastics she had just done, made her too tired.

This week she was the second one to get on that rope. I knew the minute she jumped on that she was going to make it all the way. Did I have my camera or flip video that day? Of course not! Why I ask, why? No matter though, phones do it all these days.

All of the moms, who sit on the side, cheered her name all the way to the top. She got about five inches away and stopped, tired. Then we all yelled for her to keep going, and it was just the push she needed to get herself up that last bit to reach over and ring the bell. Everyone cheered for her as she SLOWLY came down the rope. I was so excited. As she climbed out of the foam pit, I walked over toward her. She was smiling from ear to ear, beaming with pride. I gave her a big hug and told her how proud of her I was. She looked at me with a big smile and said,

"Can we go to Menchie's now?"

She had just accomplished something she had been trying to do for MONTHS, and her only thought was now she can get her frozen yogurt. Yup-she's my kid!