It's only natural that a child of mine should start their athletic career in gymnastics. We skipped right over ballet because if my kids are anything like me, ballet would be too slow, too safe, and wouldn't provide enough action. I had a very short ballet career myself as it was suggested to my mother that I be removed from the class and enrolled in gymnastics. Apparently they don't want you doing cartwheels when you are supposed to be doing plies. It didn't help that I couldn't hear at the time and my dance teacher spoke with an incredibly thick Russian accent.
And thus Adrienne and Coco have been enrolled at Rochester Gymnastics Academy, where they speak with incredibly thing Bulgarian accents. Luckily, my kids don't have any hearing problems but it is hilarious when they describe certain movements with their won version of the Bulgarian accent. I've had the "pleasure" (ha!) of attending the "mommy and me" class with Coco every Wednesday morning and then schlepping back to the gym with Adrienne every Wednesday afternoon.
Coco had a rough start to gymnastics because she doesn't like to, you know, listen to instructions or wait her turn. Sometimes she just takes off and runs as fast as her little stems can take her which is astonishingly fast, across the gym. Other times, she joins a friend or two on the trampoline when they clearly want to be on by themselves. They do this little obstacle course and some of the other kids don't move as quickly as Coco so then she tries to pass them. There have been days where I've sworn off ever bringing her again but then some days, the kid shows off her natural talents. She naturally has the best skills in her class, but taming her wild ways is a challenge. We've finally gotten to the point where she knows the rules and if she doesn't follow them, she doesn't get the magical stamps all over her body when we leave. And what is it with the stamps, why are they so coveted? I'd put stamps from their heads to their toes if that worked at home!
Adrienne on the other hand is the perfect little gymnastics student. She's such a teacher pleaser and she tries so hard. The poor thing has been blessed with her father's long frame and as such, it's more difficult to control those limbs. But she's coming right along. She does flips in the belt on the trampoline and she's working on climbing the rope to the ceiling of the gym.
And with both girls, we've been working on how to pronounce gymnastics. Coco says "nastics" and Ade says "gin - astics." Gymnastics with gin would be interesting.
I tried to capture them in action:
It's hard to see but Ade is in the first photo:
Coco doing her butterfly stretches:
Coco on her favorite apparatus - rings:
