Gymnastics day!

Grace did so well in gymnastics today!  She even got a ribbon because she did so well :)  I love watching her, and she does such a great job.  There were tests today to see what all the kids have accomplished and Grace got the "bear crawl" marked off.  She got a rainbow participation award, which is just amazing.  It's so fun because all the moms are starting to connect together and we talk a lot, cheer each other's kids on, and the kids are starting to look to all the moms for praise.  It's like we are the "gym moms" but aren't as crazy as the "dance moms" on TV.  I hope that this little group goes on together, but I don't know if that will happen.  The kids are all at different levels and there are many kids that are way ahead of Grace, so they might go ahead in a different class.  

I can tell that she's going to have some trouble in gymnastics.  She's got the hypotonia (weak muscles) and so it's really hard for her to do some of the activities.  Pulling herself up onto the bar and locking her arms is really hard, as well as lifting her feet up to the bars when she's hanging down off of the bar.  Anything with the bars is really hard.  But she'll get there.  I think we'll start some strength training at home, and when it gets warmer, we will definitely go to the park and work on it.  That's for sure!  We have a board here that I will set up for walking along the beam as well.  It's a bit wider than a beam and so it might mess her up a little bit, but at least she'll have more practice with standing on the beam.  Oh, and it doesn't help that her spine was messed with in surgery when she was 6 months ago.  That probably effected muscle growth as well.  She jumped into the foam pit today off the trampoline too!  Usually she gets to the end of the trampoline, drops down onto her butt and then slides in, but today she jumped!  I was so excited!!

So, great day so far.  Now she's working with her therapist here at home and I'm supposed to be doing homework, but it's hard to focus.  

Yesterday she stayed home from school because she still had a runny nose, and I didn't want her passing it on.  So we just messed around at home, and later in the evening we went to run on the track to get her energy out!  She does so well with her running and she's getting so much faster!  

Grace has started sleeping in her baby bed again.  It was just for nap but now she keeps asking for it for night time bed.  She's also undressing herself.  At first we would fight it, but she doesn't mess with her diaper and so we've just given in.  We just make sure it's extra warm in her room and that she has enough blankets.  I don't know if it's a sensory thing of the little rash that she's got around her diaper (I hope she's not getting to be sensitive) but we'll just keep letting her be naked as long as she doesn't start being gross with her diaper.

All in all, a good day so far :)  We get to have a friend over today to play, and then we'll go grocery shopping and Grace can get a cookie from the bakery.  We were supposed to start home preschool but I ended up choosing to clean out the closet in her school room and that was a more daunting task then I thought it would be...so we will push off school for a little while.

Amanda