Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Like Boy George, He'll Tumble 4 Ya

When I registered Lumpyhead for his music class, I also signed him up for a “gymnastics” class. Tumbling.

I’m assuming they mean tumbling as in “falling,” rather than artful somersaults. I think Lumpyhead is small for his age, and he’s not exactly physically advanced. For example, he doesn’t understand that jumping typically means one leaves the ground. He bends his knees and makes the motion of jumping, but his feet stay planted.

(Bump: “Look, he’s got the same vertical as his Papa!”)

Anyway.

There were two types of classes for Lumpyhead’s age group, one billed as “for high-energy toddlers,” which I read as “watch large, spastic demons shove your sweet, doe-eyed boy to the ground.” I signed Lumpyhead up for the other one, which I imagine will become “watch your Destructo-Monster of a toddler run amok over crawling babies, leaving a scorched path of yowling infants in his wake.”

Also, all the convenient time slots for the first class were taken. Decision made.

I’m hoping the gymnastics class lets Lumpyhead burn off some energy and interact with other children. Given his parents’ physical abilities, I don’t expect this class to groom Lumpyhead for his Olympic medal. I have no talent for gymnastics even though I look more like a gymnast than a dancer - well, a fat gymnast who’s not very flexible, I guess I’m just saying I have short legs.

(See also “Jumping,” above.)

I hope that the class is fun for Lumpyhead, and that Bump can manage the “adult participation required” with Lula in the bjorn. I hope I can make it to a couple of classes myself during Maternity Leave, Part II.

I hope at least the class will teach Lumpyhead how to jump, so he can spend the next several years properly annoying the downstairs neighbors.

4 comments:

merseydotes said...

Petunia took gymnastics last fall and this winter - once at the Arlington YMCA Woodmont Center, which is SERIOUS gymnastics with real adult gymnasts teaching, and once at a Fairfax County REC Center. She was terrible at it. She has no attention span for physical things and I was always so worried she'd break something. I have this image of her throwing herself toward the springboard, not understanding the concept of standing on the springboard and THEN jumping. But she had fun.

Mom at Work said...

Little guy just started getting off the ground this year. Give him a year or 2.

Anonymous said...

I remember when the Pumpkin was still trying so hard to jump. It was too cute to see how proud she was of basically squatting there in place. :) Now, of course, she likes to find chairs to jump off of- not as cute but still fun.

mo-wo said...

We have our first 'gyminatastics' class tomorrow... we'll be thinking of you all. i can perfectly picture captain cuteness in his 'safety jump'