My Little Gymnasts

Jaysen was finally able to come watch the kids at gymnastics last night and so I was able to finally get some photos of them.

Mackenzee has been doing gymnastics for almost five months now. Her class learns the basics about stretching and somersaults and balance and coordination. It's amazing how such little kids are able to grasp the concepts and actually do some of the things by themselves after such a short time. And I love being able to do this with her as it's a Mommy and Me class. It's been so good for her to do this. But, be careful! if you ask her to do "Peter Pike" or "Suzy Stradle" she will expect you to do it with her! ;0)




Then there's my stud Landon, who started doing this in June and in just two short months has learned so much. Miss Leann keeps the classes small so the kids are able to get more attention and one on one time from her, and because of this he is cartwheeling around the house and doing handstands all the time. Again, the class is great for coordination and for the older kids, real strength building stuff. He's doing bridges, which are hard for him because of his lack of arm muscles ;0) and jumping the vault. This class has surprised me in how much it has affected Landon's confidence. He is willing to try more things now and bouncing back a little quicker if he doesn't do it perfect the first time, which used to really frustrate him.

This was proven last night, but his confidence resulted in all of us having a big scare. They were working on the vault at the end of class and he was doing amazing. Not needing any help to do the basics like the stradle pictured above, or the "cowboy", which is where both legs go over one side like you were jumping a fence. So, Miss Leann started them working on front handsprings. With her as a spotter he was doing really well. We were all really excited for him that he was going for it without fear. Well, one of the main rules is that you have to wait for Miss Leann to say go before you start running to the vault. And Landon must have thought he could do it all by himself, because he took off running, jumped on the vaulting tramp and went for it! Unfortunately, his arms were bent, which is bad, and he crumpled head first to the floor landing back on the trampoline. Freaked me out! Luckily, he had tucked his head to somersault like a good little gymnast, and landed on his back and not his head, and so all he's ended up with were some scratches on his very sore back. But holy cow! Your worst fear.....
Anyway...we LOVE gymnastics. It has been so good for both of the kids. And we LOVE Miss Leann. She does such a good job.