David and Nile: Our Gold Medalist

I'm so sorry that it's been an eternity since we posted! January 29th was Maddie's last gymnastics class - the course was 10 weeks long but it felt like it went by so quickly!

Looking back to when Maddie began the class, and where she was at the end of January, was so great - she had accomplished a lot in those weeks and was doing so much more than when we first began. She used to hate walking along the balance beams and would lift her legs up high so that her feet wouldn't touch the beam. On the last day, she walked along those beams and at times wasn't even holding David's hand! She had overcome that fear and hesitation and did such a great job on her own! I think the only thing she continued to dislike were the rings, but that's ok! She did them and enjoyed climbing through the rest of the course, including a small rock climbing wall. And of course, her favorite thing from day one until the very end was the trampoline. That girl can jump! She absolutely loves it and would've been completely content spending the entire class time on the trampoline!

At the end of the last class, they had an awards ceremony for all of the kids. We took some long overdue photos that day of the different activities Maddie did in class, of her teacher (Ms. Gail) and the ceremony. The ceremony was really cute - they had Olympic music playing in the background and they gave each kid a gold medal to wear and a wand to hold up during their time on the awards stand. We were (and are!) proud parents!

Here are some of our favorite photos...

Maddie on the balance beam - they start off walking along the slightly higher beam (to the right of the one she's on here) and then hop down to the lower beam. I am so proud of her for the progress she made in this area! She had no hesitation that last day of class!

Here's one of the rope swing...someone is always holding on to Maddie and the rope as she swings, so it's not nearly as dangerous at it may sound!

I hopped into the class quickly and walked alongside Maddie while she was on the balance beam. After the rope swing, there's a tunnel the kids can crawl through and then a balance beam to walk on that brings them back to the line for the rope swing. That is the balance beam she was on here.

Maddie never stayed still long enough on the trampoline to get a picture of her that wasn't blurry! She was just constantly jumping and loving every second of it, as this blurry photo will attest!

Here she is flopped down on the mat at the end of the trampoline, with a fuzzy Jonah landing by her side.

Maddie is swinging on the bars here. This was another area that she hated in the beginning and was much more open to by the end. It still wasn't her favorite and the rings followed the bars, which didn't make it any more appealing (since she still dislikes the rings!).