Little Gym

This is a couple weeks late, but finally I'm sharing the pictures from our last Little Gym class of the last session. The last class is all about showing off, which Lily was very good at!

Getting ready to do her forward rolls:

Taking a ride on the giant parachute with her friends Kayla, Robert and Avery:

Walking over the obstacles with confidence:

Oops, little balance check on the high beam:


She recovered quickly:

Hanging from the bar with Ms. Lori's help:

Pushing herself up on the low beam by herself:

Standing up on the low beam all by herself:

We are so grateful that we have the little gym in our lives! Over the past semester we've watched Lily's confidence grow as she concurs each new obstacle set up. She started the class shy and unsure. I remember the first few classes Lily would just cry if we put her down on the big red mat to do warm up. Even after she started to get comfortable with the surroundings and the routine, she still was very wary of the other kids and Ms. Lori. I remember very clearly the day she broke out of her shell though...It was the Saturday after Thanksgiving, so there were only a few families at class, and Lily just walked up to Ms. Lori and started to tell her a big story, and then lead the way into the class room. We all couldn't get over how confident she suddenly was! Ever since then she's been a ham at class. She started interacting with the other kids, sharing her bells and balls with them and their parents. She always makes the class laugh by yelling every time the music says "freeze" (she just making sure we all follow the direction!).

We're also seen her develop so much physically since we started taking her. It took her a few weeks to figure out how to put one foot in front of the other to walk on the beam. After she learned that, there was a long while where we had to support her from both sides so she would stay balanced. Then suddenly a few weeks ago lily started to get very good at the beam. She started trying to stand up on the small beam by herself, and on the high beam she started practically running, and only holding onto our one hand for balance. Then suddenly 2 weeks ago she stood up on the beam all by herself, with nothing to hold onto for balance! Lily is the only kid in our class that I've seen to this! We're so proud!

We've also seen her grow cognitively from this class. Over the course of the semester Lily has learned to listen and follow direction very well. I don't know if that's something she would have learned anyway at this age, but I do attribute part of that skill to following directions at little gym.

Needless to say, we are very happy we enrolled Lily in her first Little gym class. We were sad to see the semester end, and sad to see some of her friends move up to the next class. But we're happy to say our new semester started last weekend, and Lily still has a few friends in her new class. And then in a few weeks she should be moving up to the next age level, (she has to be 18 months to become a "beast") and there she will be back with her other friends!