Friday, October 3, 2008

Gymnastics and Swim Lessons

I have been way behind in my blogging, so I guess I better catch up a little. There are a couple of things I wanted to blog about, so that I didn't forget them in the future! The first being that back in August, Mattie started taking gymnastics once a week. Matt and I went back in forth on whether we were going to put Mo in preschool this fall. We really wanted to because she is so social and smart, but at the same time, I felt she was still young, and I wasn't ready to give up my daytime stuff with her yet. Also, she was still wanting to do swim lessons, and they would have interfered with preschool. We decided to hold off on preschool for now, but we still wanted her to have her own outlet, since we have the baby coming soon. We thought about putting her in a dance class, but decided gymnastics would allow her to use more of her energy.

My friend suggested a place that she takes her kids called Tumbleweeds, so MoMo and I checked it out. Immediately I loved this place. It is an Olympic size training facility, and it looked like it would be super fun. They offered two different classes for her age group. One was for 2-3 year olds and a parent has to participate. I definitely didn't want to do that one! The other was for 3-6 year olds, and they have to be potty trained and be ok being away from parents. Since Mattie was almost 3, they let her join that class. Its called the Sweet Peas. The lady helping me asked if Mattie wanted to try a make up class, since she had missed the first one of the fall session. We stayed and Mattie tried the class. She LOVED it!

We enrolled her, and she has been enjoying them every week!

Her favorite thing to do at gymnastics is the balance beam. No matter what fun things they do during their 45 minute class, she always tells us that the balance beam is her favorite.

The parents sit on the other side of walls with big windows and watch. The children go throughout the gym and do all kinds of things, from the bar to the trampoline to floor exercise stuff. She is loving it, and I am loving it because its something for her to do on her own!

The other thing that I wanted to blog about was Mo's swim lessons coming to an end. Mattie has been taking swim lessons since April, and this is her last month taking them.

Lessons will stop for the winter season and start back up in the spring. And, for only $20 a month, I'm sure we'll be doing it again next year! Last month when Mattie turned 3, she was able to graduate to the Preschool class. She had a lot of fun, because there were quite a few of her friends from church taking the Preschool class too!

I loved it because I didn't have to get in the water with her anymore! She practiced all of her skills from swimming under water, to floating on her back, to diving under water for the sinking rings. The last week of lessons for that session, the teachers put life vests on the children and let them jump off the diving board. Some kids were a little timid, and some had no fear! One guess to how Miss Mattie reacted!

She jumped right in like a pro! I'm glad that she is not a timid child, but sometimes that can be scary. (My mom tells me that I was the same way!) Tomorrow is Mattie's last day of swim lessons, because we will be out of town next week when they are really finishing. I'm glad that she got to do the diving board last month, since she'll miss it next week. So, until next spring, Little Fish MoMo will have to make due with only gymnastics and a new baby brother!

10 comments:

rebecca said...

It blows my mind how little Mattie is so out of the toddler stage. She's going to pass Caroline up in height real soon. I love the video of her first dive. You can tell she loves both swim and gymnastics. Fun for her:)

Teresa Beth Brower Timms said...

A born athlete for sure!

She's going to be such a good big sister. I wish you had a video of the story you told me about her pushing out her tummy and telling you to see her baby.

Emily said...

Sounds like MoMo's having lots of fun! And her little brother is getting close, wow.

Stephanie said...

I love little Mo! She is so cute. She will be a great big sister...a little bossy, but she gets that from you too! :) Can't wait to see her tomorrow!

Jill and Kevin said...

Too cute! It will be interesting next spring for swim lessons for me with 2 kids in parent/tot. Jane will just have to learn to swim. Gymnastics looks like a lot of fun.

Kevin said...

That dive looked like it hurt - bad. But give the little one credit for doing it. I don't think I learned to swim until like yesterday.

shayla said...

so fun! Momo is the cutest--and it's so fun to see those little bums in the cute little bathing suits and gymnastics clothes!

Janet said...

Mattie is so brave!! what a cool video of her jumping in the pool! She is going to be a great Big Sister!

The Less Extreme Couponer said...

I am with you on the pre-school thing. i was thinking about strating Rylan so he could have his own thing once the baby came, but I'm just not ready for that. But like Mattie, he is social and smart and so I worry I don't give him enough at home to challenge him. I am still considering the Tumble Weeds myself instead of Gymboree. Do they have open times or just class times? it has been so great hanging out again. Mattie is so good with Rylan and he has been talking about her everyday! He was so excited to go and see her at the park today. She is going to be such a good big sister! I loved your sisters comment on the "bossy" thing. Just cause she called you bossy! :) I'm sure my sis would have the same to say! But little boys I think need a little girl to show them around an little girls have a natural ability to do it too. I think that's why Rylan gravitates towards playing with litlle girls more. Or it could just be that he is a ladies man like his dad. LOL!!

America said...

I was looking at Mattie's gymnastics pictures and then remembering how little she was when I first met her. I can't believe how much she has grown and learned! It really blows my mind how quickly kids grow!