TWO for TWOS-Day - Olympic Champions

My thanks to Nastia Liukin for demonstrating that even tall girls can be Olympic champions. My Two for TWOS-Day this week is all about Katie and her gymnastics and she and Nastia above are the extent of the "TWO-some-ness" for this post. Make sure you visit Deanna at Eight is Great to check out some real two-somes.

Yes, I am one of those mother's that does and plans to live through their daughter. When I was in elementarty school all the cool girls were awesome at gymnastics. I was great in soccer, but gymnastics was not my thing. There's this little thing called upper body strength that apparently is a big plus when trying to excel in gymnastics. But from a very young age, Katie has exceled in all things physical, climbing up ladders and swinging on bars at the playground the same summer she started walking. She seemed to have a natural propensity towards gymnastics and if she lived in China I'm sure the country would have snatched her away from me to start training for their national team. Knowing early on that she was going to be quite tall and that both sides of her family are burdened with big boobs, I figured gymnastics was just the thing to normal her out...you know - because most gymnasts are short and flat-chested ;).

We enrolled Katie in Little Gym when she was 1 1/2. Here's some blast from the past pics from her past gymnastic shows. Her first 2 sessions were a mommy and me type class.

Spring 2006

Winter 2007

At 2 1/2 we moved her up to the next level. It's supposed to start at 3, but she and a several of her little friends had done 2 or more sessions already and needed a little more challenge than the mommy and me class provided. Her first session by herself was a little challenging for her instructors. Although strength wise she was able to move up. She and her friends still liked to run around a lot.

Spring 2007

And finally, this past Saturday she has her most recent show.

I've been so proud of her lately because she is just really clicking with her class. She is finally old enough to follow directions a little better and stay on track with the practice rotations instead of running around like a crazy girl. Last night she started her first class of the Spring session. She is back with the instructor that she had over the summer and he hasn't seen Katie much since then except for a few make up classes. I could tell throughout the class that she was working extra hard and noticed her looking over at her teacher's a few times to make sure they were watching. I was amazed when she jumped off the high beam and landed perfectly on both feet without falling and I noticed one teacher turn to the other and say..did you just SEE that? So at the end of class Mr. Owen came out to speak with the parents and when he finished up talking about what they did that night he goes, "and KATIE..where is Katie's mom? She was AWESOME! Oh my gosh has she improved!" I was such a proud mommy.

Here are some videos of her show from Saturday...and I know, yeah all the buildup...but just remember she's only 3..she's not doing cartwheels or anything yet :) She cracks me up on the parallel bar thing. Last night she was supposed to be walking through and pushing up with both arms to work on "strong arms", instead she did the same thing she's doing here. Bar routine as choreographed by Katie..she cracks me up!

So, while watching Nastia Liukin this past summer and being so excited that a tall girl COULD make it to the Olympics (and it didn't hurt that she's blond too which made me even more inclined to picture Katie there) I realized that her target team would be in 2024, when she'll be 19 years old. Unfortunately, there is a requirement that they be at least 16 in the year of the competition. So, she likely doesn't have a chance since it seems that that the younger you are the more of an advantage there is. (Yes, I know I'm nuts to have actually done the math too see what year she could hypothetically be in the Olympics!)

But I guess it doesn't REALLY matter anyway (chuckle to myself). After her show Saturday, we had a birthday party to for our friend Ariana. She had her party at another gym in town. They have the whole inflatable bounce thing, but for the last rotation they brought them onto the floor to bounce down the trampoline track and jump into a huge foam pool.

They had the option to jump on the trampline or climb a ladder to jump off from a high perch. Well Katie got in line for the trampoline first, but then suprised me as she got in line for the ladder (which was mostly being used by Ariana's older brother Dylan and his friends). Well after doing each one once, jumping off is all she wanted to do. I think she had more turns than anyone because she kept butting in line (and they wouldn't let the parents down there and they party people weren't saying anything). She was jumping SO high and being outright hard-core. Not sure if you can make it out, but she's climbing up in the first one and mid-air in the second.

So, Chuck, our friend CJ's dad is watching her and starts cracking up. He told me he's going to be turning on the tv in about 15 years and see Katie winning the X Games. That I can forget about the Olympics that it won't be enough extreme for Katie. He's probably right, and it made me laugh because when I was having my final meeting with the early intervention team when she was aging out of her speech therapy we were discussing the therapist's notice of some sensory concerns with Katie. I had filled out a test of sorts and her most extreme abnormal result was her high level of "sensory-seeking". I had mentioned that I really didn't find it impacting in her everyday life. At the time, attention span when sitting in class was the possible concern but she was doing ok with that. Our caseworker laughed and said she had never really thought about it, but all those Extreme athletes would probably all be considered "sensory-seekers". So there you go...I guess she should start training for the X games.