And the Romanian Judge Gives Him a Nine

Tuesday was Sasha's first gymnastics lesson. We watched from an glass enclosed room as Sasha joined a class that has been meeting since the beginning of summer. I suspected that he would like tumbling, bouncing, etc. I was totally right!

He seemed to have some challenges focusing at times. I could tell that he wanted to go on the 'biggest' trampoline as he kept looking over at the teen gymnists flipping and bouncing. Once his instructor told him that he could go on the small trampoline but would have to be older to go on the HUGE trampoline, he was better. All four of them (three boys and one girl) basically made the rounds of all the equipment for an hour. They did the balance beam and then tumbled off the beam onto a cushioned triangular mat. When he completed the tumbling, then he would walk on the low beam to the beginning of the line again. On the high beam they would work with walking various ways - sideways, one foot in front of the other, etc. to build their confidence on the equipment. This kid has NO FEAR! He got on that beam and whizzed through it - no problem. His fav was the uneven bars. At the end of the lesson, he grabbed my hand to walk out and said, "Thank you Mama for taking me to this place". He can be such a sweet little boy.

Sasha also had swimming lessons and he did better this week. Swimming lessons need to be less about lounging in the pool and being walked around with a floaty and more about learning to swim. His new instructor seems a bit more willing to let him learn and had him jumping off the side of the pool without catching him with his floaties on. He LOVED it! My fear for him is that he loves water so much that he'll just jump in without fear and have a problem if he doesn't know how to swim or at least know how to get to the side or to the shallow section.

This has been a GREAT Sasha week!