Gymnastics

 Little One likes to tumble.  She likes to do "tumble shows" in the living room, as I've mentioned.
She has several times jumped headlong off the sofa, crashing into the floor and popping up hollering, "TUMBLE!"  She loves to dance, to move, to run.  So for Christmas, Her gift from J and I was gymnastics classes.  They started on Saturday!
She might have been more excited about the leotard than anything else.  Fine, I was too. The gym we're signed up at is HUMUNGULOUS.  They have about 6 classes going on at a time, every hour.  I think we were all a little unprepared for the crowds and chaos, and there was no introduction, just jump right in! They had Her warm up with some older classes, and the music was loud, and She'd just been woken up from sleeping in the car.  She did not appreciate being urged to jump right in! when we all know by now that Her preferred reaction to new situations, especially loud and crowded ones, is to sit on the sidelines and observe for awhile. But the instructors were really nice, and after a little while She warmed up and got into it.  Especially for being Her first structured class and for it being such an overwhelming environment, She did a really great job.  She tried everything, from balance beam to trampolines and obstacle courses, to somersaults, rings and bars, and jumping into a big pit of foam.  At the end She got a stamp of a turtle on Her hand, which She admired the rest of the day.  I taught gymnastics to little ones long ago, and the organization and giganticness of this place are different from what I expected based on my own experience.  But I think that the more we go and it becomes familiar to Her, the more She will start to jump right in! and enjoy it.  In the meantime, I'm proud of Her for testing Her own comfort zone, and She did have fun.  J and I took her to lunch after, and then She slept like a rock for twice as long as usual.  
Out there with all the other classes swinging and flipping around Her, She looked so very, very tiny. But at the same time, I stood there in shock a little bit about the fact that I have a child big enough to be enrolled in an activity like this. She's my baby.  But also my big kid.  You know, the twos are hard but also wonderful in the way that line is straddled.  Sometimes neither of us is so sure which side we'd like to be on; stay a baby, grow up, stay a baby, grow up.  Both are so wonderful and so fraught with their own challenges.  I guess it's just a good thing that we have this wavering transitional time, so that neither of us has to just jump right in! all at once.  She did the obstacle course all by Herself.  But at the end, to celebrate Her independent achievement, She ran to us for hugs.