...And Somehow It's 2015 All of a Sudden.

How have five weeks passed by since I last blogged? I was really doing well posting regularly there for a while. Clearly blogging didn't make the New Years Resolution cut, but I digress. I'm here now, though, and with five weeks of updates!

First things first, Ava is FIVE now! Holy smokes! How'd that happen? Didn't I just find out I was "unexpectedly expecting" the other day?! More on her party soon, but let's just say it was the best yet. Five's been treating her decently so far, too, from getting her ears pierced to starting karate to fulfilling a goal she's had for quite a while: moving up to the big girl gymnastics class! 

Ava's been taking classes at The Little Gym for quite some time, and while she's loved every second of it, she's been anxiously awaiting the time when she could move up to the grade-school level classes. She made that move last month, and today marked her third class as a "good friend". Her class is a combo class, with age groups spanning 5-12, which is absolutely perfect for her, since she's got quite a bit of natural talent when it comes to gymnastics. She's coordinated, ridiculously fit, focused - all things she didn't inherit from me ;) Anyhow, combining her natural propensity towards gymnastics with her love for girls older than her and challenging herself, and this class has been an absolute perfect fit. Even better, we love Ms. Kathryn, her instructor, and she's made a wonderful new friend in the class that's her same age and started the same day she did - they've become great friends, and her mom and I have too. The relationships we've made with the owners, instructors and classmates at The Little Gym is one of the many, many things I love about it there!

Jack has also started a new class this semester, having graduated from the "Bugs" class to the "Birds" class now that he's a bit older. His current age grouping is 10-19 months, which is wonderful, since he's smack dab in the middle, and able to learn from the older kids and be an example to some of the younger kids! We have one of our fellow bugs in our new class, too, so seeing a familiar face and knowing that our two little ones have a long-standing friendship already is wonderful! Jack LOVES his time on the big red mat!

He likes to take his skills home with him to practice between classes ;)

Ava has also started Tae Kwon Do, thanks in part to a seriously awesome Groupon at a local studio. She's really enjoying it so far, and loves how goal-oriented it is. She's already earned her headband from learning and reciting the oath:

My grandma (aka Nana to the kids) came to visit for a week, which was really wonderful. She was such a huge part of my childhood, and I absolutely love that my children are getting to know her and making memories with her as well! I feel so fortunate that they've got such wonderful family in their lives that want to be a part of it <3 p="">

We also had our sweet kitten Jasper pass away after just five weeks, falling victim to a terrible virus (FIP), and have since adopted a sweet little calico kitten named Charlotte. She turned four months old the other day, and she is AMAZING. Sweetest, most curious, Ava-loving kitten of all time:

Happy, happy new year! I hope that all of you are having a wonderful start to your new year as well!

The Little Gym of Round Rock: Jack is a Bug!

As you already know, Ava has long been taking classes at The Little Gym of Round Rock, and absolutely loves it. The teachers, the gym, the curriculum - it's been such a great fit for our family. So when Jack went mobile recently, I figured it was high time for Jack's own introduction to the gym!

The youngest class they offer is the Bugs class, starting around four months of age. We just started a couple of weeks ago while Jack was seven months old, so he'll only stay in the Bugs class for the summer (until he's ten months, when they graduate to the next level), but he's really loved it so far! 

The first week I wasn't sure of what to expect, and it could've gone better. Jack was in what might be rare form for less intense babies, but what was kind of par for the course for him, and we ended up going to sit in the multipurpose room mid-class so I could calm him down. Thankfully the instructor is used to babies and surely had seen it all, so no one even batted an eyelash.

Aside from the mid-class fit-throwing, our first class went great! It started out with us introducing ourselves and our babies, and then leading them through a series of stretches and warm-up exercises. After that, we do an activity incorporating a new motor or cognitive skill; in the case of our first class, we made music and tapped two rods together in different ways. Or, in Jack's case, he chewed on the sticks and then screamed when I took them away. Same difference.

We've also spent time exploring the gym on our own, doing front rolls over rolling gym equipment with our instructor, grabbing the rings and hanging out on the air track. So many wonderful sensory experiences! Each class ends with bubbles, easily one of Jack's favorite parts. He crawls all over the floor trying to pop (or really smash!) them. He also loves the bouncy balls that we practice rolling and playing with, except I think it's because the big white button where they get inflated has led him to believe that they are giant boobies and he attacks them as such.

One of the benefits of the class, aside from the obvious stimulation and development for Jack, is that it is a great opportunity to meet other moms with babies who are similarly-aged and who are in a similar place in their life. It can be really isolating having a young baby, and having support and knowing others are going through the same thing can really help to get you through what can be a lonely time!

We can't wait for our next class!

Ava's End of Year Show at The Little Gym.

Summer is now upon us, as the 98 degree temperature reminds me almost daily, and as such, another school-year season of gymnastics at The Little Gym of Round Rock has come to a close! A couple weeks back - in fact, the same weekend as my birthday, Ava's ballet recital, and her grandparents visiting for the weekend - Ava capped off another great year of gymnastics. Show week gives children the opportunity to invite parents, friends, grandparents, and other special people in their lives  into the gym for an exhibition of the skills they've been working so hard on all year.

Her class split into three groups, each with a different instructor leading the way and assisting where needed, with some on the beam, some on the floor, and some on the bars. They then took turns demonstrating their skills for the audience, not only showing off all they've been learning and practicing, but allowing each child to take the stage and build their self-confidence.

Here's my little funny bug:

Happy handstands, friends! We're so excited to start our summer session of gymnastics and continue on this wonderful journey!

Summer Camps at The Little Gym of Round Rock!

Ava has attended some summer camps this year at The Little Gym of Round Rock, now that she's old enough to realize that she's been missing out while the big girls are at camp, and she has LOVED them! With theme weeks ranging from Superheroes to Barnyard Bonanza to Cheerleading and Karate, she's gotten to have many different experiences and activities, all while being in a familiar place and with the same few coaches each week!

Mommy loves the camps, too, since they're three hours long - the perfect amount of time for me to run errands alone (and sometimes sneak in a pedicure, too!) - and the schedule is flexible, accommodating both morning and afternoon free time. AND, the best part? With my varied schedule, I can't always commit to a week, making it hard to find camps for A. Thankfully, though, the great staff at The Little Gym understands that, and offers up one day camp passes, as well as the full three-day week passes! 

Pictures to come from the four camps she has left this summer - I know we both can't wait!

Open Gym at The Little Gym of Round Rock!

One of my favorite benefits of being a member of The Little Gym of Round Rock is the times that they hold "open gym" time. Rather than a scheduled class, this is time when the gym is open to certain age groups to come and just practice and play! In case the use of the facility isn't enough, they have instructors on hand to guide them through this practice time, helping them try new moves or work on ones they're particularly interested in. 

For Ava, this was definitely back handsprings:

Ava typically likes to practice a newly learned skill repeatedly, something that isn't always an option at home without TLG's awesome equipment and techniques, so this was a great chance for her to do back handsprings until her little heart was content! And believe me - she did! 

Ava enjoying her free time in the gym:

Another skill Ava wanted to try her hand at while we had time to practice was a front flip on the bars. If you think this sounds too advanced for a three-year-old, you haven't met the amazing "coaches" at The Little Gym. Ava's always believed herself invincible, but they certainly inspire her confidence to try new things in a way that continuously amazes me :)

Aside from free play, they also offer a bit of structure for kids who desire it. For example, during our time at open gym on this particular day, Coach Ashlee brought out some basketballs and a miniature hoop, to provide a bit of structure in the chaos and offer the children a chance to hone their hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills! 

That looks like one satisfied customer, right? If you've yet to check out The Little Gym of Round Rock, you can find them online here, or check out their Facebook page for more information. They also have a Lakeline location for those closer to Cedar Park and Northwest Austin.

The Little Gym of Round Rock: Ava's a Funny Bug!

Now that Ava's celebrated her third birthday, she's graduated from the Super Beasts class at The Little Gym of Round Rock into the Funny Bugs/Giggle Worms combined class for 3-4 & 4-5 year olds.

We went to our first class with our new friends this past weekend, and while there are some kids that are a lot older, it works out great since her ballet class is with the same age group, and she really idolizes older children. If there's ever anything we really want Ava to do, we just have to get one of her older friends to do it, and she'll jump right in!

Anyhow, the new class was great, if a bit larger. Since the course curriculum follows the timeline of a school year, rather than semester, we did happen to start on the mid-session parent watch day, which threw us slightly off our game. We'd been prepping her for the fact that in this new class, we wouldn't be able to go in with her, so imagine her confusion when every parent filed into the classroom to watch. Doh! That's ok, though - it was a great way to ease her into the new class and she'll be ready and see some familiar faces for next Saturday's class.

Here's my "funny bug" doing her thing!

We're really looking forward to this weekend's class!

Gymnastics at The Little Gym: Our Experience.

As much as Ava has been enjoying her ballet and tap combo class, she mentioned the other day that she missed doing gymnastics. It just so happened that around the same time, an opening was available for a toddler gymnastics class at The Little Gym, so - always looking for new ideas to keep Ava active, happy and an outlet for all that toddler energy - we signed right up.

This past weekend was our first class, and I was blown away by our experience at the first class. We've done gymnastics before at two other local places, but it was still amazing to me how quickly Ava was able to jump right in and participate with the class. The class she's in, known as "Super Beasts" and for 2.5-3 year olds, is 45 minutes long, which is the perfect length for her attention span and energy level, and I loved that the age grouping was so narrow and focused, because all of the kids were on the same page and right around the same ability level, which really helped to keep the group on track.

One additional bonus was that our class meets on Saturdays, which means - voila! - my husband can attend with us, which made Ava's day! His previous experience with Ava's gymnastics classes was limited to parent watch days or sick days for me, so Ava was happily surprised that daddy got to join in on the fun!

The class started out with the introduction of the learning concept of the week - another added bonus that we haven't experienced at other gyms - which happened to be "high and low". The 45-minute class and activities focused around this theme, including high and low bars, throwing the ball high and low, blowing bubbles high and low, etc.

Once the concept was introduced, hula hoops were brought out for the kids to play with, followed by some time with the big parachute, moving it up high and down low and going under and left and right. These spatial concepts are fundamental learning skills, as well as early  mathematic skills, but Ava certainly didn't know how much she was learning - she was just having a ton of fun!

Once the parachute was folded back up in its place, they then moved on to some loosely structured activities within the gym itself, which looked like this:

Did you know my kid could do this? Because I certainly didn't....

As much as Ava loved the bars, she ADORED the balance beam, and has since her very first gymnastics class at 16 months. Check out how awesome she was:

She also picked up right where she left off when it came to the spider crawl and bear crawl across the parallel bars:

It is hard to narrow down what Ava's favorite part of the class was, but if I had to guess, I might say the different activity stations on the gym equipment. I loved that there was flexibility in what they could do: Our previous experience had been that the kids had to all go to one place, and then wait their turns one at a time, which we all know can be hard for this age group. At The Little Gym, though, they were able to choose what they wanted to try, and how often they wanted to.

Once the kids had a chance to explore the equipment and practice their skills, they were then shown a "skill of the week", which involved walking their legs up a mat while holding a bar, and flipping themselves over the bar. Sounds hard, right? Yet somehow, the instructor was able to get every child to try, and some - including my little monkey - to master it! Consider me impressed!

Once the gym time was over, the class moved back onto the mats to practice forward rolls, once again incorporating the high/low theme by teaching the kids a rhyme to get them into the safest forward roll stance:

"Reach up high, touch the sky.

Reach down low, touch your toes!"

Ava's been telling me that ever since! In fact, a lot of their cues to move on to a new activity or to clean up, etc, are set to music/rhymes, which makes it both easy to remember, and eases the transition. We're going to be trying a bit of that at home - ha!

The class then ended with some balls, bubbles and - of course - stamps for participation! Ava has already asked me in excess of 30 times when we're going back to gymnastics! Luckily for us, we loved it so much and were so impressed with the way the class was run, the answer is next week!

For more information about The Little Gym of Round Rock and to sign up for a trial class to see for yourself how amazing it really is, click here. For those who don't have time for a weekly class, you're in luck - they do birthday parties as well!

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