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The highlight of our week

Jolie loves gymnastics class. I mean LOVES.

On Saturdays, we start off the morning by asking her, "Do you know what today is?"

"MASTICS?" she guesses excitedly. Yay! Mastics!

We started her in a toddler gymnastics class when she was 18 months old, the youngest this particular gym takes, and it's been a mutually loved experience, us as much as her.

Her class is held in a real gym, a huge warehouse-like expanse full of real gym equipment - vaults, balance beams, full-sized trampolines, a cushioned floor, as well as especially-designed areas for smaller kids: a pint-sized balance beam, low rings, a rope to swing on, smaller-sized trampolines, low-to-the-floor wide balance-beams. We had tried out those other kid chain gyms held in storefronts and really prefer this actual gym setting. There's a lot more space to maneuver and the activities seem more engaging and skill-requiring.

When she first started, she was the youngest in the class and for awhie, JP and I felt like we had a remedial child. She wouldn't jump across the long trampoline, she'd just run. She was scared of rope-swinging (even while being held onto tight by the instructor) and it seemed like the other kids in her class were leagues ahead of her.

Her instructor though was encouraging, and even after a month, we could see big leaps of improvement, so to speak. Pretty soon, she was properly jumping and that first day she swung on the rope by herself without the instructor holding onto her was such a thrill for us all.

Now, a couple of months to three, she shines in that class. She can demonstrate a lot of the exercises, can swing on the rings like a pro, and does lovely somersaults. More than that, she can listen and follow to the instructions, wait patiently for her turn (a clear benefit to these classes), and even cheer on her classmates.

She's always been very physically-engaged; her motor skills always were advanced, far more so than verbal skills. We love how this class makes gives her even more body awareness and control.

Pretty soon, she'll be graduating to the next class level: one without parental involvement. And we'll be discovering the joys of sitting on the sidelines and watching our daughter blossom.