But Thursday's mean gymnastics for Logan! This is the start of his second session at American Academy of Gymnastics in Palatine (I trained their once in awhile before meets when I was on the Lattof YMCA Gymnastics team) He really loves going to gymnastics, he was still enjoying Gymboree, but when he turned 3 he would have had to move up to the child independent class which was two hours long and parents had to be there for the first and last fifteen minutes of the class and had to stay within the strip mall for the entirety of the two hour class and with a newborn that wasn't going to work and family Gymboree is on Friday's when he was at MDO so we said good by to Gym-Bo and Gymboree and started gymnastics.
Of course having the gymnastics background and coaching background that I have I would only send my son to a gym that I was familiar with and comfortable with (and of course at the first of the year the gym changed hands and now I have no background info). Matt comes home early to take him because he is still in the parent & tot class and since I was still recovering from birth I couldn't be up on the tramps with him and doing other things like that. So it's a Daddy and son thing now. I did go to the first class because I wanted to see how the class was run and made sure I was ok with it. Logan's teacher is wonderful with him and I was happy with the way he ran class so that was good. So now on Thursday's all I hear all day long is about gymnastics, Logan gets very excited and he counts down the hours announcing what time it is and what time is will be when he goes to gymnastics.
Logan is getting better at listening and doing what is asked of him at gymnastics, but his favorite is still the trampolines (the regular one and the tumble track). Matt mentioned that he still wouldn't do a forward roll, so I taught him how to do one on our couch at home, I don't want to over step his teacher, but I taught the same age group so I know what I am doing of course so he is safe. So now he tries to do forward rolls all over the place.
I think some people in my family think I am crazy for putting him in gymnastics, but really at this age it's all about developing those fine motor skills and any kid Logan's age will benefit from gymnastics. And hey if he takes to it and likes it and has some natural ability for it like I did, then great! Male gymnasts are not a dime a dozen like female gymnasts and if he is good and can get a college scholarship than hey great for him, but that is way down the line and we are just having fun with it now.
Admittedly I am trying to stay out of his gymnastics right now, the one time I went it was really hard for me to just sit there and not help him through everything or give him a different way to do it. The very act of walking into that gym was hard for me and once I hit the main floor and could smell that gym smell and see the gymnasts working it brought back a lot of painful memories, what was, what should have been. Don't get me wrong I had a lot of fun times, but towards the end it wasn't so fun and gym politics really beat me down and put a sour taste in my mouth. When I was coaching at the park district it was very healing for me, I am so glad I did coach because I had a lot of reservations about doing it, and unfortunately I had to give it up because my boss was a tool, but it felt good to help young kids learn and give them confidence and not break them down like so many coaches do to their gymnasts, ruling through fear and what not. But sitting on a chair in that gym looking through the door and watching the gymnasts working on bars (my worst event by far) and smelling that gym air just brings it all back the good the bad and the ugly. Once of the reasons I am so thankful for my skating career and my skating coaches, everything I ever wanted to accomplish in gymnastics I have done in skating (US Nationals with my sychro team, traveling for competitions, ISI WORLD Champs, lot's of success in competition) and have done it with supportive coaches that NEVER tear you down only build you up and push you in the right way. Between coaching gymnastics and my skating it has healed those old wounds from my failed gymnastics career.
So for now Logan is having a blast and getting good exercise with Daddy and Ava and me have our Thursday Mommy & Daughter time to look forward too!
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