Can I blame it on "pregnancy brain"?

Ok, ok, I know I've been slacking on this web blog thing. I haven't written in almost a week & I'm starting to receive threats. Ok, not literally, but I've been asked, mostly by Jeff, "Have you written in your blog today?" And I have to hang my head, and say no, I forgot. So I blame it on the baby, who seems to be sucking the brain cells right out of my head at this point. But what will my excuse be after the baby's born? Hmmm, gotta think of something good.
Last Wednesday Emma had her first gymnastics class. Right beforehand, we were running around town trying to find a leotard for her. We went to Target, and we found the one she wanted. She had her choice of 3, and surprisingly, she picked the least gawdy, which I think says a lot for her little 4 year old fashion sense. It's very simple, light pink, no sleeves, with a small pink bow on the front. Very classy. And of course, she HAD to have a bag to go with it, so we went with the Dora bag to put all of her "gymnastics class" paraphernalia in. That generally means a water bottle and a magazine for me to read. But we were both so excited about her first class, that the magazine didn't even get taken out of the bag once.
Once we got to the class (after walking ten minutes in the snow from a parking lot far far away), Emma got changed into her leotard and was ready to go. They gathered all the kids (age 4 to grade 3) and then separated them into their age/grade groups. Emma was so excited that she forgot how old she was & didn't get up when the head instructor called out for the 4 year olds. I had to quietly get her attention & let her know that it was her turn to go. She's in a group with about 6 other little girls, one of whom is our neighbor across the street, Morgan. She immediately started getting social & jumpy, rolling around, jumping up & down, basically not being able to sit still if her life depended on it. Then her group joined with the 5 year olds & they started warming up. They were running in a circle, jumping, skipping, running backwards. Then came the stretching, which I can already tell we're going to need to work on. As flexible as my little Gumby is, I guess she's just not used to doing stretches where her legs needs to be straight. I suppose that will come in time. I also kept having to remind her to pay attention to the instructors, every 5 minutes she was looking for me & giving me a thumbs up, like, everything's cool mom, look at me!
Her class then came right in front of where I was sitting (perfect photo opp, if I had brought my camera, D'OH!) to walk on the balance beam. It was only 3 inches off the ground, so no need to worry about Emma falling & hurting herself. Emma did pretty well, considering she's never done any of this before. I'm thinking though, for next time, maybe I should move to another spot, because I felt like a distraction to her. She kept looking at me & not at what she was doing, which caused her to fall off a lot. There were a couple girls in her group that I know must have older sisters who are in gymnastics, because these girls looked like they'd been practicing for awhile.
After the balance beam, they went over to the uneven bars. They had the girls hang on the top bar for a few seconds, swinging, so they could get the idea of what it feels like. Then they had them start at one end of the bar, and holding on by their hands, scoot themselves over to the other end of the bar. The last trick they had them do was to stand up on the lower bar, grabbing the top one & then flipping themselves over the top bar & drop to the ground. Kinda daring stuff for a first class, but all the girls seemed to do well. I was thinking, this is probably the kind of thing that my little Evil Knievel has been looking for. She's a daredevil at heart. Always has been. Ever since her daddy started throwing her up in the air when she was a baby. And catching her, of course.
After the uneven bars, the class went over & started doing somersaults. Well the rest of the class did, Emma unfortunately doesn't have that natural talent. Her somersaults started out looking like she was plowing the mat with her head. She would get the right stance, looking like an upside-down V, but whenever she tried to push off & flip over onto her back, she just kept pushing herself along the mat on her head. I was worried that she was going to wear a bald spot in her hair before the night was over. Then she kept going sideways, ending up on her side, but she kept plugging along and pretty soon, she got the hang of it. The backwards somersaults were a little easier. They used a giant triangle shaped wedge to help them. They started out at the top part of the wedge & then laid back down an incline and flipped over backwards. A few of the girls seemed like they were a little disoriented when they stood up. I guess that kinda stuff messes with your equalibrium.
After that, the class was finished, and Emma wasn't happy about it. She could have gone on all night if they would have let her. But I finally convinced her that we would be coming back, so I think that worked. I only wish Jeff could have been there, but he'd been in Boston all week. But as soon as he came home on Friday, she was telling him all about it.
I guess the weather finally got to us last week. We've been through days of 10 inches of snow & near white-out conditions, but the snow & cold we got on Wednesday caused all school's to be closed on Thursday. I don't know why, it didn't seem that bad, but hey, I don't make the rules. Emma was really bummed though, because when the public schools get closed, so does her preschool.
We got our pictures back from Wal-Mart yesterday. We had them taken when our friend Deanna was in town earlier this month. They turned out really nice, for the most part. But the one picture that has all 4 of us in it is messed up. They set us up too high & the top part of the picture has the background rolls contraption in it. So we're trying to think of creative ways to cover it up.
I want to say "Happy 50th Anniversary" to Jack & Pat Michelmore. They celebrated it this past Saturday by renewing their vows. Jeff & I wish we could have been there, but we send our warmest thoughts & congratulations.
Well Emma is bugging me to go out in the snow, so I better wrap this up. Until next time.