ALL OF THE OLIVERS: Fun at Flips

Addison started a gymnastics class today Flips. She was so excited that my child who normally gets up between 8:30-9:00 during the summer got up at 7:30 this morning ready to learn how to "do flips" as she said. As we were driving there, I was worried about how she would be going into the class without me. During the school year she had some separation anxiety issues which got better as the year went on. We talked about how she would listen to Ms. Nicole, her teacher, and that I would sit and watch her. Once we got there we quickly had to buy a leotard and change because I could not find one anywhere. Addison picked out the most patriotic leotard with red, white and blue sparkle stars and was even more excited once she had it on. I must say she looks pretty darn cute in her leotard!!

When the time came for class to start, she did great walking right in with no problems. As I sat down to watch I thought to myself this is going to be great. I thought a little too soon! Addison's class warms up with all the other class. Each child stands on a dot while they dance and stretch to a warm up song. My child just stood there…

Addison made her shy face the entire warm up. I felt so bad because most of the children started last week and they knew what they were doing therefore she was a week behind. For those of you who know Miss Addie T, you would never know it but she is very shy in a group of people and very slow to warm up.

After the warm-up the classes separated and began to rotate between each activity. First up for Addison was running and jumping into the pit of foam blocks! I really thought she would do great because she loves jumping into the pool however she did not. She ran a little but stopped at the edge a looked into the pit each time. Ms. Nicole had to pick her up and toss her in! She came out smiling every time but she would not jump by herself. Maybe next time when she is more comfortable with everything she will do it by herself.

Eventually as the class went on Addison began to warm up and became her social outgoing self; maybe a little too well! She did great running, hopping and jumping off of the springboard onto the mat. The only difficulty at this rotation was when the teacher told her to go sit down in the line with the other children; she would run across the gym and sit somewhere else. I’m not sure if she was being a stink or did not understand what the directions were. Honestly, I think my smart little gymnast was being a stink but I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt being it was her first class.

At the last rotation my little gymnast began to shine on the bars. She loves to swing on the bars and did great at it!! She was beaming from ear to ear and was so proud of herself. Because she was doing so well and enjoying herself at the bars, Addison had a hard time waiting her turn. She did not want to sit down and she became a little too helpful pushing a little girl on the bars to get her swing but ended up knocking her off. We will definitely have to work on our listening skills before next week.