Girls....

Reagan started gymnastics on Wednesday.... She was so excited and so was I, I have secretly always wanted one of the girls to want to do the sport that was so close to my heart. Anyway, I put her on the waiting list back in August when this years session started and they called on Monday and said they had a slot.

Taken before practice with camera phone... resolution isn't the greatest but her smile is!!!

Anyway, we got there and they called her age group and there were about 25 kids that went out onto the mat.... they started out by stretching. Sounds easy but if you've never done any of these stretches it can be a little awkward. After about 8 minutes of awkwardness they broke off into groups and Reagan being the new kid had no idea where to go.... Do you remember that feeling of not knowing what to do? My heart was sinking... I was thinking, I don't want this for my kid, what was I thinking, why was I subjecting her to this? She was so brave she walked up to one of the instructors and told them she was in her group. ~ Breath Tracey~
After she tells the instructor she is in her group the instructor points to a beam...... What...... she has never walked on a beam much less the high one..... Once again my girl pulled it out.... she climbed right on up there and started walking across while the instructor was 2 beams over. I'm on pins and needles and Riley is right beside me and she is right there with me... holding her breath for our little Reagan .... She gets about half way across and falls off landing on her feet...whew.... the instructor says from 2 beams over Reagan would you feel more comfortable on the low beam? I see Reagan shake her head and walk over. She was great! I had no idea she was so brave. She had absolutely no instruction. They stayed on beam for probably 15 minutes. In the 15 minutes they walked backwards, forwards, sideways, and bunny hopped. All things Reagan had never done and In my opinion were to advanced for her. If they were going to let her have a slot they should have evaluated her and her ability.

At this point I was thinking, I don't think this is going to work she can play softball with Riley and they can share a sport. (I asked Riley what she thought and she said "I feel bad for her and I want to go help her" She said exactly what I was thinking and feeling.)
She never looked intimidated or scared or anything! The same thing happened when she got to vault...they would tell her to do something that she had never done ... she wouldn't do it right the first or second time but then she would catch on!! I think I would have cried and never wanted to come back.

All the other girls knew each other and so for the first 30 minutes she was off by herself and that in itself broke my heart but she never seemed bothered by it. By the end of the practice she had made a friend and they acted like they had known each other forever.

At the end of practice she came running and said she had the best time and she loved gymnastics!!!

My whole point to this story:
How many times as parents do we want to scope them up and protect them? I don't ever want my girls to feel awkward, insecure, rejected or any of the other things I felt as a girl. Being a girl is hard and I wish I could make every situation easy on them. I know that things will get more challenging as they get older and I know there will be many times that I'm going to want to make it all better but I also know that sometimes you have to let them get there feelings hurt, fall down, be alone, not know what to do, or just feel insecure. This is how we all grow. I don't know if I'm done growing b/c I still feel a few of these things sometimes.....

I have more respect for my mom everyday.... how did she do it without help? She made it look so easy ~ who knew her heart was breaking on a weekly basis!!!


Thanks for listening to me ramble!!