Days 91-93, The Heart and Drive of a Champion!

I am a little biased, but I do believe that I have great Girls!:)  Last week, I wrote about my oldest daughter and all the things I love about her and the great gymnastics meet she had, now it's my eight year old's turn!

Two weeks ago, this kid was missing major skills that would prevent her from competing as a level four.  For a month and a half of the summer, I couldn't get her to practice on Tuesdays, which meant that she missed learning new skills on both bars and floor.   If you know anything about gymnastics, you know that for a level four gymnast, the major skills on bars and floor are a front hip circle and underswing dismount on bars and a round-off, back handspring on floor.   She didn't have either two weeks ago.  She decided that she wanted to compete before we leave for Belgium and knew in her mind what she had to do.

She wrote her goals in her "Notes" on her Ipod Touch and the rest is history.  She gave herself one week to get the front hip circle and one week to get her round-off, back handspring and just days before her meet, she got both!  Although the level four season doesn't start for her gym until December, her coach was nice enough to take time from his Saturday to take her to a meet to compete alone, without her team – so that she would have the opportunity to compete this season.  It's not often that you come across someone who cares this much about a kid to give her that option, free of charge.  She really wants to have the option to come back to compete at the State Championship meet and she can't do that without getting a qualifying score of 32 All-Around, at two meets.    We were hoping for a qualifying score of 32, but got much more – a score of 36.225 and a first place All-Around title.

Check out her performance!

Last week, at parent-conferences, each of her teachers said that there's no doubt that she can be whatever she wants to be in life.  I wholeheartedly agree.  I often am inspired by her, not just because of her natural talent, but because of her ability to set goals, stay focused, remain confident in the face of adversity and above all, work hard.  At one point, she had as her signature line in her text messages, "Ari rocks at everything."  I made her remove it, while giving her a serious lecture on humility; but, as time passes, I realize that she really does rock at everything...and I am forced to ask myself, who am I to take that away from her?  After all, she does work hard at everything.

Strangling Red Riding Hood

Hippie Chick

Now, I must sign off for today.  For the first time ever, all of my girls are still sleeping at 11:30AM.  Yesterday, they had a great Halloween trick-or-treating and stayed up late playing with my friend Zeda's girls.  They are worn out.  With that said, I know I only have a few minutes before the girls wake up and today is a very special day, it's my baby's first birthday!!!


Stay tuned for "One thing I love about my baby Girl!"  Hmmmmm...................How do I write only one thing??  That's going to be hard!
















**If you are having trouble posting to this blog, choose the "Name/URL"option and just enter your name.  A URL is optional.  You can also choose the "Anonymous" option and post anonymously or include your name at the end of the "anonymous" post.