Balance beams, trampolines, and parallel bars!

Yes....Colin is taking gymnastics....well, maybe.  We'd been thinking about wanting to get Colin involved in some sort of class.  We decided that we'd try gymnastics since he loves somersaults and tumbling so much.  We had tried the classes at Little Gym and Gymboree but they just weren't what we were looking for. We decided to go to an actual gymnastics gym.  Just as we were about to book him in a class, the gym we were looking at came up on Groupon.  It worked out perfectly, we could try it out without it costing too much.

The first class did not go well.  I was "that mom" that everyone feels sorry for and that makes non parents never want to have kids.  I picked the kids up from daycare and headed to the class that started at 4.  I had Audrey with me, that was the first mistake.   The gym is pretty big and there are seven classes going on at once.  Most of them start out on the floor warming up and stretching together.  That meant about 100 kids on the floor at once, plus all their parents seated by watching.  Colin was immediately too overwhelmed.  After about 15 minutes they separated into individual classes.  Colin's class is 5 boys ages 3-5 with one teacher, parents don't participate.  Colin still wouldn't have anything to do with it.  However, he REALLY wanted to but was just too scared.  This lead to major meltdowns and temper tantrums....the kicking and screaming on the ground type.  He didn't want to participate but didn't want to leave so we stayed and watched the class.

The following week we decided Paul would take him, without Audrey.  Colin does better with these type of things with daddy.  It took 30 minutes but he finally decided he wanted to do it.  And he LOVED it.  It's all he's talked about since.  "I want to go again."  If we ask him if he wants to go to gymnastics he'll scream "YEAH!!!"

It has still taken a lot of coaxing to get him out on the floor but we're making progress.  This week we're back to me taking him and having Audrey with me because the class is too early in the day for Paul to be able to go regularly.  We have a couple more weeks left on our Groupon then we'll decide if we're going to continue.