Rollin' and Tumbin'

(not Rhiannon)

Rhiannon's best friend at school invited her to go with her to The Little Gym for a 5:00 PM class today. Now, understand that Rhiannon has never been that graceful, that she has only begun to run in a straight line, always knocks stuff over (in fact, one of her favorite games at home is when she plays "Knockover" with dad -- she throws herself bodily into him and they both go tumbling over). During the Olympics, Rhiannon watched the replay of women's gymnastics which included the wee Shawn Johnson (see photo above), and she thought that after swimming, that maybe gymnastics would be okay to try.

Rhiannon lasted about two months in ballet at age three -- she never listened to the instructor (a 16yo Mussolini in a leotard), and always wanted to dance a mix of Aurora-in-the-forest and Laura Petrie. This did not fly in Kenosha, and Rhiannon was kicked out for...um...being a kid.

So today we tried gymnastics. Rhiannon wore her orange and pink camo skort and her goldenrod "Arizona State Princess" t-shirt. I hung out with one of the dads while the six girls and two boys, all between 5 and 6, filed in. Two gymnasts coached the kids who warmed up, ran around, and ultimately got to try out the different equipment including the vault, uneven bars, balance beam, plus tumbling blocks and "cheese" for cartwheels.

Rhiannon adored balance beam, and did great on it, not falling off, and her coach showed her how to sweep her feet gracefully along the bar, and then to jump off onto the mat, landing on both feet without falling over. Hallelujah.

She also loved the apparatus with the single, horizontal bar. She hung there, legs wrapped around it as her hair touched the mat below. She almost did a full flip, but reconsidered it because of the height she was off of the ground.

"Well, where's the cute," some of you may be asking. Rhiannon, true to her free spirit, started tumbling on her own, and ended up doing a rather agressive somersault onto a rather thin mat. She started crying, and all I could do was watch through the window as she sat up, comforted by her coach. She asked Rhiannon if she wanted to stop, and Rhiannon, trooper that she is, said no, and went back with the other children who wanted to fly in the air off of the jump-pad by the vault.

This last apparatus failed utterly for Rhiannon who is maybe 45 pounds dripping wet and could not generate the inertia to make the springs actually bend. Rhiannon ran and ran, hopped on the springboard, and...nothing. So instead she did a somersault on the floor in front of the board and felt pretty darned good about it.

When Rhiannon came out from class, she was all smiles and told me how fun it was.

"Dad, that was fun. I want to do it again next week."

"Okay, Rhiannon. We could do that. Why were you crying earlier?"

"I broke my back!"

"You did?"

"Yes! But I am better now. But I really, REALLY broke it."

"Can I see?"

I lift up the back of her shirt to check. All clear.

"You're okay, kiddo."

"Yeah. But I really broke my back."

Rhiannon. Durably cute.

Andrew (Papa)