An unlikely little gymnast

After watching the Summer Olympics (and seeing all those Chinese gymnasts that were the same age as him), The Boy decided that he wanted to take up gymnastics. The Wife was pretty excited about it and I think it’s good to encourage our kids to try new things, so we picked out a place and signed him up for classes this fall.

That said, I had my doubts. This is the same child who still isn’t comfortable climbing up on playground equipment with grated flooring. He’s not exactly the most adventurous child in the world. It took him a couple of weeks to warm up to tee-ball and he didn’t really get into soccer until his second year of it.

So really I had pretty low expectations for the whole gymnastics experiment. The only way I could agree to it was that we could pay month-to-month, as I didn’t really see him lasting beyond two or three lessons.

I’m pleasantly surprised to report that I was totally wrong. I still don’t think he’ll be contending for medals any time soon, but The Boy is now in his third month of gymnastics lessons. There’s still some tears from time to time (especially when they want him to flip upside down on the high bar or on the rings), but he seems to be really excited about it.

He’s kind of challenged when it comes to doing cartwheels and his upper body strength is a little lacking, but he’s paying attention and trying hard. He’s learned to get up after he falls and try again. After a couple of very tenuous sessions at the beginning, he’s now willing to leave his feet and actually do handstands and back flips. And he’s got his landing position down pat.

Most importantly, he’s learning to have confidence about stepping outside of his safe little bubble-wrapped existence. Last night, he was running at full tilt down the runway on the vault and doing pull-ups on the rings – things I could never have imagined him doing just three months ago.

After gymnastics, we always stop at Whataburger on the way home so he can get a milkshake. The flavor he gets depends on his evaluation of the night’s lesson – a vanilla shake for a bronze effort, chocolate for silver and strawberry for gold. The results seem a bit arbitrary. In fact, he usually announces what “medal” he’s getting on the way to the lessons. It keeps him happy though.

Puke!

Let me fill you in on a little secret – I’m sicker than a dog. I started feeling crappy around 6 o’clock last night (while I was at The Boy’s gymnastics lesson) and haven’t gotten any better since. Just by reading this post, you’ve probably caught whatever I’ve got.  Sucks for you.

On the plus side though, I now know that I can hold a 10-month old in one hand while holding a bowl for me to puke in with the other. So I can add that to my résumé.

Fries at the bottom of the bag

• Not to bag on Circuit City, but when your stock loses 98.7% of its value over the past year, maybe it’s time to stop listing it on your website.
• I’m become a big fan of NASA’s Twitter accounts, but the chit-chat between the shuttles (@SSDiscovery, @SSAtlantis and @SSEndeavour) make them sound like a group of gossipy junior high girls.
• Speaking of space shuttles, my dad is taking a trip out to Florida to watch Endeavour take off this weekend. How cool is that? Hope he takes some pictures.
• I know that seafood is exciting, but can’t we show Susan B. Anthony some love too?