Camera blues and GYMNASTICS

I am not going to lie. Life has been hard. In mid August I lost our family camera. I had set it on the back of our truck/car and forgotten about it. I don't know how long it hung on before feeling neglected and going the way of the road. Needless to say I am thankful I do this blog or I most likely would've lost ALL my pictures from the summer, but I feel lost without it. Fortunately I only lost a couple pics from swimming with a friend and Livi's first bike ride without training wheels, it could've been much worse. Bill has been very loving and supportive of the whole thing. He knows that the camera usually resides in my purse to catch all that life throws at us. He even brought home his camera from work, which is definitely lacking in the quality department, but at least it was something. (I always have to be careful when downloading the pics to not get the latest thug or search/seizure outing he's been on. Aaron was watching me download one day and saw a picture of one such person and asked, "Who's that mommy?" I didn't know quite what to say, the whole thing was a little odd. So, I appreciate Bill doing that for us, he never even got mad at me. It's kind of like when I was a kid and had done something so bad that my parents wouldn't even punish me because I was punishing myself more than they could... yeah, kinda like that. Well, now, the battery has died and Bill had left the charger at work and he is... "unavailable". The thought of "FIRSTS" happening without a camera is KILLING ME!!!

Both Aaron and Olivia have started gymnastics.* Well, to make Livi happy I suppose I could be more specific. Aaron started gymnastics on Thursday mornings for 45min. Livi started "tumbling" on Mondays for an hour. Tumbling vs. gymnastics: tumbling doesn't incorporate any apparatuses, which, in this stage of Livi's life, could only cause pain to her port if she were to fall. In tumbling she will learn to... tumble!

As Aaron's parents we have decided that perhaps "ball sports" won't be his forte (unless he becomes a linebacker or tight-end), the whole hand-eye coordination... not really his thing. He's what one could say "lacking" in the fine motor skills department. And if you think a ball doesn't take fine motor skills, just watch Aaron. We aren't going to give up or stifle any progression he may make but we thought it would be in his best interest if we could get him a little body awareness. Hence, gymnastics. He really enjoyed it. He was able to complete all the tasks that were put before him, great for his self confidence. He is the biggest kid in the class which reminds me that he is "really big" as everyone tells me, but I still can't get my head around it. To me, he's just Aaron. When people hear that he's three they look at me as if I've bred a giant so I quickly follow up with "he'll be 4 in January". This takes away a bit of the shock. They usually just raise their eyebrows and smile. (I don't think he's that big?!?! Oh well, maybe that linebacker thing can come to fruition.) The coach, Miss Vanessa had them swing on the bars, hold themselves up with straight arms on the bars, do "hot dog" rolls, and forward rolls down wedges. Aaron has all but mastered his forward roll at this point so it was good to see him really succeeding at something. It's great for his ego. After class he said, "My best part was tossing the bean bag in the hoola-hoop with my feet." This was difficult to decipher with his speech, because from my view, through a window, I could see no hoola-hoop or bean bag. The great thing was, it made him smile, and unlike baseball, he wasn't asking to go home. And that makes me smile.

Olivia had her first class tonight. We were running behind schedule so when we got there class was seconds from starting the warm-up laps around the floor. She quickly kicked her shoes off and joined the 25 or so kids in running the laps. They split the kids off into age appropriate groups and started right away with vaulting off a trampoline and "sticking" a landing on the foam pad. It was great that there was no transition time which in Livi's world equates to "time to make me actually stop and think about what I'm doing and then make me so nervous I want to cry." Up until this point she hadn't even tried to find me through the glass. When I saw the tramp and what they were supposed to do I fought the urge to put my purse on my shoulder and grab my keys. Olivia HATES jumping off of things. She has a tough time jumping off our bottom step. The thought of her having to vault off a trampoline...ugh. She ran down the path... no sweat. I was truly proud (in a good way) of my daughter. Throughout the class, she did what she was told and kept trying. At one attempt on the tramp she mis-stepped approaching the trampoline and bounced awkwardly and then face planted on the mat instead of going in to her forward roll. With how she landed it caused her fingers to bend back and started to cry. The coach was great, real short and sweet, sent her to rest in the chairs. She was looking at me through the glass sobbing, Aaron was stressing out about his sister, but I just gave her a solid thumbs up, signed "are you okay?" and motioned for her to shake it off. She did and she joined the group again after two cycles through everyone in her group (about 6 girls). She may not have the prettiest cart-wheel but her bridge leaves nothing to be desired. And to say she was smiling the entire time would not do justice (except of course when she got hurt). I am thrilled to say, I think we hit the nail on the head with this one!

Note* Things both kids will have to work on at home: 1. flexibility 2. Flexibility 3. FLEXIBILITY! It is nothing short of hilarious at how inflexible both of our children are. We know Bill is not flexible. His biggest fear at the academy was flunking out because of his lack of flexibility. (The poor guy can't even sit on the ground with his legs straight out in front of him without leaning back on his hands!) Aaron and Olivia, both, were the two least flexible ones in their classes. Aaron much worse than Livi. As far as Aaron can bend forward while doing "buttlerfly wings" with his legs... is to barely touch his chin to chest. Now that's sad!