Tumble Tots

The indoor pool that Drew does his swimming lessons at is closed for the month of November, so I started looking around for another activity that Drew might like and could burn some of his abundant energy. While I don't want him to be one of those completely overscheduled children who doesn't even know what to do when they have free time, I do think a class or two here and there is a good way to expose him to different activities, get him socializing with other kids outside of his preschool, and have him learn to listen to other authority figure's instructions. Anyway, I discovered a Tumble Tots gymnastics class. Given Drew's recent love for somersaults and walking on his hands while we hold his feet, we figured we'd give that a try.

I took Drew to a trial class a couple weeks ago to see if he'd like it before we signed up for a regular class. He was thrilled! He went right into the gym area without me and listened to his teachers' instructions very well. The majority of the things they asked him to do he had never tried before, and I thought he picked most of them up pretty well. After the trial class he couldn't stop talking about going back to the gym and jumping on the trampoline, hanging on the monkey bars, etc. etc. Then, the first class we walked into he would not let go of my leg. Fortunately there is a Mommy & Me class at the same time as Tumble Tots so they let me stay with him until he calmed down, which took through the entire warmup and the first station of exercises/skills. The second class, same reaction, but I was able to leave him after just the warmup. It's like it takes him a little while to remember how much he loves doing the activities.


Once again, my camera has failed me in terms of quality photos. I don't know if it's the distance from which I was taking the pictures or the lighting in the gym or the fact that Drew was in motion the whole time, but most of the pictures I took are either fuzzy or awkwardly colored. I was able to do a little something with the dark pictures with my photo editor, and here's a couple anyway.


Drew on the mini trampoline. Before that he had climbed the little ladder in the bottom left hand corner, and that was, by far, his favorite activity of the day. The boy loves ladders. He points them out in stores, on TV, in books. I'm thinking this could be dangerous at some point.




Drew negotiating the mini balance beam. He was supposed to hold the balloon in front of him with both hands, but he needed at least one of those hands for balancing.



Drew practicing a hand stand (aka the Spider Man wall)



With a little help from his instructor he holds it for 5 seconds.


Drew watches intently as his teacher demonstrates the skill of the day on the big trampoline.

Drew gives the seat jump a try. And then, his second favorite activity to the ladder, he gets to jump in the pit of what he calls "comfy blocks".

Not pictured because I didn't bring my camera the first week is Drew "hanging on the monkey bars," an activity he tries to emulate on door handles and the island in between our kitchen and dining room.

Since my camera failed me a bit at the gym, Drew showed off a couple of his other skills here at home.

"Cartwheels" Yeah, I know they don't look anything like cartwheels, but he's getting the idea of putting his hands down and kicking up his legs. He does better with it at the gym when he can watch someone demonstrate an actual cartwheel. Mommy and cartwheels are two things that have never gone together, so Drew's out of luck on that at home.

Crab walking...something I am able to demonstrate and which Drew finds hilarious

This was supposed to be Drew stretching out both his legs up in the air and holding his toes with his hands, but he didn't feel like cooperating. Still, the picture was too cute not to include.