Mary Lou & Nadia (Colette & Josie's Tumbling Class) 4-10-09

So I signed the girls up for a Parent/Tot tumbling class on Fridays. Problem: I've got 2 girls and only 1 of me. Solution: Ask Aunt Bern! She generously agreed to be a surrogate parent to one of my gymnasts.

Were they excited? You bet. Should be easy and fun, right? Nope. Josie is the ultimate shy child and despite wanting to do this class, REFUSED to participate in the warm-up activities. Instead, she whinned and whinned and clung to me like gum to a shoe. Colette is NOT shy, but modeled her big sister's behavior and also did not want to participate. What to do?

Luckily, we moved from warm-ups to sommersalts and suddenly my little Mary Lou and Nadia came to life! We moved from the tumbing to the various apparati around the gym and they both acted like they were on the 2nd rotation of the summer olympics. They mastered the "ta da" (arms up) at the completion of every apparatus in the first 1/2 hour.

Here we come, Chicago 2016.

Colette & Aunt Bern warm up

Josie having a hissy fit

Here we go! Josie making the rounds on the obstacle course and Colette following close behind.

Colette showing us her best jumping skills

Josie on the uneven bars wowing the crowd


Josie master of the beam

Colette getting some coaching from Aunt Bern before starting her beam routine.

The reward: jumping from the beam into the foam pit!

Naydenov Gymnastics


You would think after such a great first class, the 2nd class would have started without a hitch? Not so. We went through the same Josie shy behavior, but luckily, the 2nd class, she warmed up during the warm ups!