Carlsbad

We took a little day-and-half spring-break trip to Carlsbad this weekend. It consisted mainly of relaxing, going to the beach, and visiting the flower fields. Sweet time.

Mercy

um...self-explanatory.

Tumbling Take 2

Disclaimer: This is a little bit of bragging on our girl. But it is a whole blog about her, after all. And the people who read it love her and would be proud of her too. Am I right?

Mercy is taking a tumbling class again, but it's FUN this time. Ahem. Last summer, when she was 15 months old, we took it for the first time, and frankly, I was the one getting the workout squatting up and down for 45 minutes trying to help her do all the stuff! And then there was the fact that she would simply refuse to do some things. AND it was really crowded with other 1 - 2 1/2 year olds and their parents, many of them just wandering around (the kids, that is). . . Anyway, I was brave enough to sign up again, and am SO GLAD I did. Mercy is doing great and really enjoys it, too. She's not afraid of the apparatuses (yes, that is the plural. My instinct was apparati, but I guess not), follows directions much better now and is just so much more physically capable. Plus, there are only 4 kids in her class this time (and three teachers!) so it's just better all around. She talks excitedly about tumbling class during the week and practices the things they've taught her. They have pretty high expectations, in my opinion, and each week I think the maneuvers are kind of a stretch, but then she amazes me and gets it by the next class. She is doing forward rolls and eagle rolls (feet apart and hands behind the back) on her own, and wants me to help her do headstands at home, and she is surprisingly good on the balance beam (don't worry--it's hardly above ground-level). The first week her teacher asked her to walk on her tiptoes backward on the beam and she did! I thought, "Wow, Mercy, you have skills I didn't even know about!" So, I'm not saying she's the next Shawn Johnson, but I think this class is so beneficial for her and lots of fun. Of course, getting a stamp on her hand at the end is a major highlight, too. (SS)