San Francisco Gymnastics

What to do with a little girl, full of energy,
who loves to run, jump, roll and twirl?

Let's see, maybe go down by the water and
do some peaceful and quiet sight seeing
by the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco?
OR... get a view of the bridge..
while doing a handstand or an upside down tumble at San Francisco Gymnastics!

Not a bad view at all, but Daddy was the only one who noticed...
Hannah had some trampolines and pads to focus on,
with some help from wonderful Coach Kara!

Look at this obstacle course! Heaven on earth for Hannah!
Getting to change into a special PINK gymnastics uniform
in a PURPLE changing tent
is always a great start to the class!

I'm ready!!!
First, all the Busy Bees do their stretching exercises in a circle...
Then they line up and, one by one, go through a specially designed routine.
Every week, the gymnastics room is set up with completely different challenges and obstacles...
"Hey... wow... is that the Golden Gate Bridge? That's pretty spectacular!"
A forward roll up over the bar with help from Coach Kara! Hannah, you coach is special. She truly loves to watch you tumble but she loves making you smile even more! Guess what? Coach Kara started tumbling when she was five, and sometimes she practiced up to five hours a day, doing as many back handsprings as she could! What she enjoys most about teaching you is watching you face your fears, going for it, all the while having fun!

Woah! The Balance Beam!
I did it!
Hand Stand Time!
Forward rolls, crawls, jumps and one-legged hops...
And Hannah's favorite activity to date:
the super-loooooooong-trampoline-jumping-and-shouting-while-turning,
"Hello, Goodbye,
Hello Goodbye,
Hello Goodbye,
Hello Goodbye!"
"Hey Daddy! I love gymnastics!"
"What do you like the most about gymnastics, Hannah?"
"I like the yellow, blue, orange and red and green,
and my pink uniform, and Coach Kara."

"Hey, Daddy! Look, it's Golden Gate Bridge!"
A pretty special place to tumble!
Thanks San Francisco Gymnastics!

Cone Head

From bottom left, clockwise:
Front and center, right next to Coach Dan
Pregame mental exercises
MUST find the purple cone!
Of course, because WHAT ELSE is a cone for!?!?!
Coach Dan's complex demonstration of how else to use a cone
Pretty sure the hat game makes more sense...

This girl needs a HELMET!

Tricycle Peddlin'

1. Sitting and waiting for Daddy to push...

2. Still waiting... Daddy!!!

3. Getting off, throwing hat, leaving tricycle in middle of sidewalk,
coming back when I ask you to consider:
"Hannah, why don't you peddle and see how fast you can go?"
returning to your abandoned steed, getting back on,
all the while imploring upwards, "Huh?" "Hmmmm?" "Uh?"
wanting to see how this "peddling" will work out...
4. Moving forward!

5. HANNAH'S PEDDLING!

6. Deciding after half a rotation that peddling isn't very fast,
back to step 1, sitting and waiting for Daddy to push...

19 Mos = Lots of Activities!

So far, with two soccer sessions in the bag, I think we can safely say that Hannah enjoys her 45+ minutes on the field, and will in time (like all the toddlers just figuring out what the heck is going on) pick up on all the games and drills over the course of the 7-week "season." Despite her speed and love of "nunning," she is usually picking up the rear during red light green light across the field. As usual, she is way more interested in watching what all the other kids (and their caretakers) are doing, and scanning the field for stray soccer balls, than paying attention to her mother beckon her "Come on, Hannah, green means go! Let's GO!!!"

Although she may not be the best at listening to direction, she is pretty good at kicking the ball around, stacking cones, and chasing after hoola hoops. It's become clear the coaches do have some actual skill-teaching in mind, even if we'll never actually play a game, so it's a trip to watch and participate in the learning. Hopefully as time goes by, Hannah will become increasingly tuned into the coach and her direction, and less consumed with ball. Then again, maybe her obsession with the ball is exactly what will make her the next Mia!

Outside of sports, she's also as crazy about music as ever. So when we stopped by a local garage sale and she kept gravitating to the Little Tikes piano/synthesizer, we knew we had to have it. I could hardly tear her away from our upstairs neighbor's (Alexandra) piano a couple weeks ago, so it was no big surprise that she had to have her own "Nano." She is so dramatic when she plays - it's like she's composing some terribly sad love song from Les Miserables. (Either that or she's been watching alot of old Alanis Morissette videos when I'm not around.) Check out the recent video (right sidebar) of her performing her latest composition...

We also took a couple different gymnastics classes (trial runs) at two local gymnasiums -- Acrosports over near the Haight, and SF Gymnastics in the Presidio. Both basically offer free gym time with parental oversight for toddlers Hannah's age, and include trampolines (Hannah's favorite), big mats, balance beams, swinging bars, etc... Based on our trial runs, I am favoring SF Gymnastics -- it's more convenient, the gymnasium is much larger, there are more instructors/structure (even though it's mostly free-form), the trampoline is large and not limited to one student at a time, and frankly, it smells better! All that said, our session yesterday at SFGym seemed to impart some kind of bug to Hannah (fitting for a program called Tumblebugs I suppose!), which kept us up most of the night, and made us skip soccer today. But still, the class was very well attended, and the director introduced herself and seemed well organized, regimented, and focused on safety. It's not to say Acrosports was a bad experience, but much looser, smaller, and parking is a challenge. So hopefully we'll be able to get into a regular morning Tumblebugs class at SFGym.

Game Face

Mom driving me to my first "soccer" session today.
$4.50 (gas)

Getting my first team uniform complete with cup (the sippy kind) and shin guards.
$35
Owning the field, hurling out my game face and exuding the 'tude.
Priceless.

Some things require practice.
For everything else... There is MasterKid.