Our Gymnastics Star

Katherine began her third year of gymnastics this fall.  She always seems to view it as a fun activity and therefore never really seemed to take much interest in the team.  In fact she chose this year to drop from a two hour class to a one hour class because she found it too tiring.  So imagine my surprise one Thursday evening in September when Katherine asked if she could attend team tryouts that weekend.    I told her she was welcome to attend tryouts but I would make no promises of her actually being able to join anything but the rec team.  I didn’t know much about the teams but I knew all of them but the recreational team required a lot of time and a lot of money.  She also happened to have a Girl Scout sleepover the night before tryouts so I questioned whether she would actually feel like attending or perform all that well after staying up way past her bedtime.   But it wouldn’t hurt her to try, it may even be a good learning experience.

I picked her up that Saturday morning as soon as the sleepover was over and got her to tryouts a bit late but still in time to participate.  Told her to do her best and have fun. Told Cris (gym owner) that I wasn’t sure how she would do but we were probably only interested in the recreational team.  Let me tell you, girlfriend walked onto that floor for tryouts like a boss.  LIKE A BOSS.  There was no other way to describe it. If she was exhausted she didn’t show it. If she was nervous, she didn’t show it. Her whole attitude was “I got this”.  And she did.  Balance beam, floor, stretches.  Basically whatever they asked her to do, she did it like it was no big deal.  When it was time for the bar, Cris was helping each of the kids to flip over.  When it was Katherine’s turn, she looked at Chris and said “I know how to do this”.  Two seconds later she had flipped herself right over and was balancing right on top.  Cris and Nikki (one of the coaches) were shocked.  They asked her to do it again and she was like “ok.” And she did.

Cris came up after tryouts to talk to the parents about when to expect results and the different levels of teams, etc…  She then asked me, in a very nice way, why we were only considering the recreational team.  I mentioned the obvious reason of cost but also the amount of time in relation to academics.  We talked for a bit, during which time she said more than once “She’s good, she’s REALLY good.”  I stifled my urge to say something sacrastic like “Well s*** lady of course she’s good, why would she be anything else?”  We talked about the three levels of team and she said that more than likely her team invite would be coming from the highest,  USA Gymnastics level (heck yeah, it would).  And while the two other levels (AAU and the recreational Stars Team) would also be available to her, USA Gymnastics would be a now or never opportunity.  The goal of that team is a college scholarship and they need to make sure there’s enough time to develop the skills needed to qualify for one.  After 9 years old, there’s not enough time and they don’t offer slots.  It was an all or nothing decision with that team.

Now on the one hand I was REALLY proud of my girl. Really proud.  A tryout performance like that deserved some serious bragging rights.  Miss K rocked it.  She went in there for the rec team and walked out with an invite to the top team. BOOM. On the other hand I was torn…not really torn but maybe a little funny feeling in my tummy.  My kid was good, there was potential there.  Let’s face it who doesn’t like having someone talk about their kid like that?  I know there were a bunch of other parents in that gym who wishing for the chance for their daughter to be invited to the top team.  For them it would be a no brainer.  We went in for fun, not expecting anything, and it got laid right in front of us. I think I felt a bit guilty for saying no because of that.  There was a part of me that wished she could do it, that we as a family could make that commitment, give her that opportunity.  But I knew that from every angle… budget, time, and, most importantly, our sanity, it just was not going to happen.

I think a part of me was also angry…why did it have to be all or nothing?  Why did it have to require 8 plus hours of practice a week and hundreds of dollars a month?  Why couldn’t she get her feet wet this year and slowly ramp up her commitment if she wanted to?  It seemed like a huge decision to be making at 9 years old. As expected, the email came through later that evening with an invitation to the USA Gymnastics Team.  I about fell over when I looked at the cost information…we’ll just say between class fees, meet fees, and travel expenses, it was A LOT. That alone ruled it out, never mind the time commitment.  But I didn’t share any of that information with Katherine…it never even got to a discussion on cost and she had made a decision before the invite ever came through.

On the way home I told her the days of the week that the USA Gymnastics Team met, which happened to be the same day as Girl Scouts.  I told her that if she made a commitment to the team, she’d have to give up Girl Scouts for the simple reason that you can’t be in two places at once.  Her immediate response was “I’m not giving up Girls Scouts”.  That was it done, no agonizing over a decision for her.  She would join the rec team.  Boom, end of discussion, she didn’t want to hear anything else.  She rode home a happy kid.  I was proud of her again for being so level headed and sure of what she wanted.

So we blazed full steam ahead on Katherine’s first year as a member of the Stars Team.  And in the end I think it was a perfect fit for our family.  It added an additional hour of practice to our week, which was totally doable.  The four meets were all local, no travel involved…although all but the last one took up the better part of an entire Saturday for maybe 10 minutes of actual performing.  Not that Katherine noticed because while I was wiling away my time with the other parents, she was hanging with her friends.  . Miss K (or Kate as she is called on the team) was able to experience learning a routine to perfection, performing that routine in front of a crowd and then what it was like to be judged on that routine.   Even though every kid received a trophy, they were ranked in each event.  I was concerned that she would get upset when she was ranked near the bottom.  However, it never seemed to phase her whether she was on top of the podium or at the bottom in 7th or 8th place (and she ended up being at both those places and everywhere in between during the course of the season).  She left each meet in the same happy mood.

Will there be a second year of Stars for Miss K?  The jury is still out.  Right now she is leaning more towards taking Parkour with her brother because tumbling and climbing all over things looks like So. Much. More. Fun.  I told her to think about it and take her time…no decision has to be made until sign ups in August.  In the meantime I’m just going to be proud for how she handled things from beginning to end…with a very mature and positive attitude.  Of course she did. That’s my girl.

Six

At the top of our stairs is a collage of pictures of the kids when they were wee ones. One of them is of Teddy when he was only about four days old. It was taken right after we had returned from his first pediatrician appointment. Our spunky little guy turns 6 today and it is hard to believe he was ever that small.  

Not that he's a huge kid now, he seems to be growing taller but not wider. 4T pants are still a perfect fit waste wise, even if the length barely reaches his ankles. Thank goodness it's just about short season.

I would say the last year has really been a transition for him in going from a preschooler to a kindergartner and loosing his "toddlerness".  He is a full fledged little boy now with a smile that is so infectious that you find it hard to discipline him on those rare occasions where he misbehaves. He's still a snuggler and will frequently ask you to sit with him so that he can get as close as possible. This includes digging his feet underneath you as far as he can get.

He's inquisitive; Young Chet will talk your ear off about anything and everything.  "Mommy, I've got to tell you something." is heard frequently heard around our house.  He tried soccer this year and while he was good at it, it was not quite the right fit.  Since then he's latched on to parkour and is making is Ninja Warrior dreams come true every week.

We are hoping to get him involved in Scouts this fall.  Minecraft has captured his attention this year as well and his favorite guilty pleasure, aside from playing the game, is to watch non stop You Tube videos of others playing the game.  He can't help it, gaming is in his blood.

As much as he is growing up, he still loves his trains.  Our living room frequently becomes the Island of Sodor with Thomas and the gang chucking along.  I am convinced that he will become the adult with a model train set in the basement.  He also loves marble runs which makes me think we may have a budding engineer in the house.  While he loves to have you read books to him at bedtime, I wonder if he'll be another STEM child like his sister.

Teddy is the only non-summer birthday in our house and I frequently wonder if he gets shortchanged on the birthday front just because the pace is always more hectic during the school year.  We celebrated a bit on Sunday, surprising him when he arrived home from Papa and Gram's house with a cake, Olaf decorations, and presents, including a big stuffed Kion from the Lion Guard, the current favorite TV show.  He was excited at Parkour last night that it was his turn to stand up on the vault and get his birthday cheer and medal.  Tonight will probably be fairly low key...although he is excited that he and Daddy get to play with his new circuit board set from Uncle Scott and Aunt Kathleen.  And on Saturday, the boys are going to the Monster Jam truck show.

Here's to another year of fun, laughter, and discovery!  Happy 6th Birthday Teddy!!!!