Gymnastics!

We have just two sessions left of Ava's first 7-week long gymnastics class. She LOVES gymnastics - I mean, more than anyone could love any thing. As soon as we get inside the building she will squeal and point to the trampoline and whine to go out and start practicing her moves. It melts my heart!

The class is for 18mos-2.5 year olds, but thankfully I got approval for Ava to start at 17 months since she turned 18 months in the middle of the course. She does really well with the other kids and learns a lot from the more experienced ones.

I love that the class is not only fun for her, but it works on her physical abilities, her mental abilities, and also her interaction with others (taking turns, waiting turns, celebrating others' accomplishments, etc.). It's been so cool as her mother to watch her go from having not a clue to do with any of the circuits, to, after just a few sessions, being able to walk the balance beam, climb the ladder, jump on the trampoline, and do forward and backward rolls!

Here are some pics we captured in a few of the classes...

Learning how to hop in a circle (this turns into a cartwheel once they move onto the next class).

This is from her very first class - she did not understand how to climb the ladder...at all!

And, we wanted to sit on the balance beam in our first class instead of walk across it ;-)

All smiles waiting for class to begin - these following pics are from her 4th class...

She can finally jump on the trampoline!

She LOVES doing forward and backward rolls...the backwards are probably her favorite (seen here)...

Toes up on the bar (cutest toes ever!)

Jumping again...she pretty much rushes through all the circuits to get to the jumping again...

Her third favorite circuit...the monkey bar!

We not only can climb the ladder now, we can do it without mom's help! Where did my baby go so quickly?!

Getting ready to do a handstand!

Listening and watching the teacher walk us through the next set of circuits...

Climbing through the tunnel...

At the end of every class, the kids either get to play in the foam pit or with the giant parachute - here they are playing with giant parachute - the kids LOVE running under as we lift it up and then bring in down on them and they also love "popping the bubbles," meaning running on top when we put it on the ground. It's so cute seeing all these littles go crazy with excitement over it!

Needless to say, mama and dada are doing everything we can to fit gymnastics in our budget from here on out! I think Ava would be devastated if a Monday came around and we didn't go to class! ;-)