Gymanstics success

I signed my baby girl, Rachel, up for "Twinkling Stars" gymnastics for summer through our community parks and rec. It was a 4 week class and today was the last meeting. The first 2 meets were a complete bust, where I left in tears because my kid is so independent and WILL NOT LISTEN! 

While all the other kids were having a blast walking across the balance beam, climbing the rock wall, or doing somersaults, my kid is throwing tantrum after tantrum because she just wants to run around doing her own thing. I guess it's a good thing that she is independent and I hope she will always have that quality to her, where she marches to the beat of her own drum. But I desperately wanted her to just be "normal" and follow the coach's instructions and the other kids' examples. Why did I have to be the one with THAT KID who was wreaking havoc? "She's only 2 years old" you say? Well so were the other 13 kids! Oy.

I told Ben I was ready to give up after the last session, which I had to leave early because my little demon was unbearable. He said I needed to keep challenging her. I can't just give up on her and give up doing good things for her because it's easy or because I want to avoid negative situations. She will never learn to be in those kind of settings if I avoid them. He's right.

So we missed a week due to our trip to NY and we were back today for another session. I told myself on the drive to the studio, "have a clean slate, it's a new day. Don't expect the worst." Ahhh, the power of positive thinking! Rachel was so great! She sat with me (instead of running off to avoid me), she watched the coach's examples of the exercises and instructions on how to use the apparatuses, and she had fun! Full moon, Armageddon?  I don't care! The most important thing is I made progress. And I didn't give up on her. This particular class is now over, but in 2 weeks we start "Tumbling Teddies." I hope it will be another step forward, but if it's not, I will just keep challenging her anyway.