The great gymnastics expedition

Abigail participated in an exhibition at her gym this past weekend. She has repeatedly called it an "expedition" for the last few weeks, though. She did a great job showing the skills she's learned in class since January. Our family was all able to attend, though we'd planned on at least one of us staying home with Isaac if we needed to. I think he was happy to get out of the house though, and seeing Gramma and Granddaddy, and his much-missed sister, were really good for him. Sweet "Aunt" Autumn came, as well as friends Jamie and Joel from church, to cheer our girl on. She was extremely bouncy and excited, and we had a blast watching her enjoy some time focused on her.

Short Video Clip:
She's always dreaded learning the balance beam, but actually did really well on it, hardly glancing down.


Here's a quick video we took after the crowd had left. Abigail's favorite thing to do is to climb the rope suspended from the gym ceiling. She's quick and adept to scoot up it, and shimmy back down, each time they get a chance, and part of her enjoyment of it may be the fact that no one else in her class has ever made it to the top. She quickly asked Mr. Craig if she could show her grandparents after the exhibition was over, and he graciously allowed her. Little monkey. She's something else.

My little gymnast

We had a big day Thursday as Abigail began her long-awaited gymnastics class. It was a lot of fun, especially since at this point she's the only one in the class and got lots of one-on-one attention. We'd all planned to go and watch her, but James had to stay home and rest some. (He'd had a horrific 2 days in a row at work, only getting about 4 hours of sleep in between days where he lost two babies and worked about 30 hours, including teaching a pediatric advanced life support class). Anyway, it was great for us to focus on something happy, which Abigail certainly was. Her coach was super encouraging and they really accomplished a lot for an introductory lesson. Isaac was even all grins, just amazed at the skills Abi was accomplishing, or attempting. She's such an eager, brave, enthusiastic pupil, and even tolerated a ponytail for the special occasion, which is very rare. And, that crazy ponytail almost made us late, because it just wasn't tight enough at first, and then there were some loose hairs, and then there were some lumps, and she had to "fix it"....oh me. You don't want to hear all that though. I had to get the Mean Mama voice out. She can be a perfectionist and obsess about things sometimes, if you don't know her well. The hair is just one issue.

The perfectionistic tendency carried over, so, during her class, I got tickled a few times because when she would attempt a certain skill, if she didn't nail it perfectly the first time, she'd apologize and act a little embarrassed till her coach finally reminded her it was her FIRST day, and she was doing great. I think it finally sunk in, and she was pleased with herself. She never got frustrated really, but she wants to do well so badly. She actually told Isaac and me beforehand that she hoped we'd enjoy watching her on TV when she's "at the competitions". :-) She's got some big dreams, this girl. It's going to be a long week till next Thursday, since she's already counting down till the next time she goes to the gym. I'll let ya'll know when she's on television.