a GIANT

Well, it sure has been a while since I have blogged. I recently returned from California and a lovely woman there told me I should start blogging again. Now that I have access to a really smart phone, I can blog on the go. There's an app for that! Of course there is.

Well my Little Guy is now 8 years old. And Little L is 5.  G is 10. 10! Can you believe it?! Me neither. Unbelievable.

Today, Little Guy, who has turned out to be quite the gymnast, did his first Giant on the high bar. Of course, me being a non-gymnast mom, I had no idea what it was, but it was clearly a GIANT deal.  I am so proud.  

Basically a gargantuan, I mean giant, is when you swing ALLL the way around the bar, completely laid out, like a spinning hand on a clock.  I myself, cannot do a somersault without being dizzy for the next three days, so I am baffled that the kid was able to walk straight out of that gym with nary a wobble. 

Funniest thing happened though, while I was watching him at his practice.  These two other moms struck up a comvo with me. They talked about how their boys needed to score this many points to make it to regionals and they have  spreadsheets for their scores and how their boys need to do better on this event or that event. They asked how the level 4 boys were doing, and I said I think they are all doing well, and working hard.

They were nice enough, and then we started talking about how hard doing the pommel horse is.  There is this piece of equipment called the mushroom that the boys practice on to help develop the movements to do the pommel, and one of the moms said she just got one for her house for her kid. (at $350 it is not a small investment). She said she makes her kid practice on it for punishment for poor behavior. The other mom chimed in with she makes her kid do conditioning as punishment. (Sit ups, push ups, etc).  They looked at me.

Awkward silence.  I can't think of the last time I "punished" Little Guy.  Timeouts sometimes until he can get himself together and then join us again, but that's about it. I don't consider that a punishment, though... we all need a time out to ourselves sometimes.  I felt so bad for those boys.... They are only 8 or 9 years old.   

I eventually told the moms I have my kids clean for punishment, which technically isn't true... They clean up because we all have chores and they earn their allowance that way... But I felt weird telling them my kid doesn't do anything that requires me to punish him...  It's just not how we roll around here.  

I gave my Giant swinging Little Guy a giant hug after practice, and told him how I love watching him do his gymnastics and that I can tell he has been working so hard because it shows. 

Then he asked if he could please have a mushroom at our house so he could practice more on his own, and also could he please go to the gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays so he can practice more and work hard and get better?  And then he told me that he wants to be a gymnastics instructor when he grows up... and I felt like the best mom with the best kid in the world... and so glad that in his world, his sport is a pleasure, not a punishment.