Into the Pit

We tried a new thing yesterday, or at least a familiar thing in a new place.  None of my local rec centers have drop-in gymnastics, they are all class-based, and Maeve is not ready for that yet.  So I tried a drop-in that's one city away from me.  The downside is I have to pay extra, which probably means we won't get out there too often, but the upside is the facility is _amazing_ and Maeve loved it.

Here are two things Maeve is timid about: new people and new places.  She's not terrified of them, and we've made lots of progress in the past two years, but they still give her the willies.  Yesterday she was chomping at the bit to get into the gymnastics area, and when she got in, she kind of ran around in circles for awhile without touching any of the equipment.

She was immediately drawn to the foam pit, (filled with one-foot-square foam blocks) but was unnerved by how it felt when she got in, very unstable underneath her.  Do I blame her?  No, because I didn't set foot in there, afraid to sink, irretrievable, to the bottom.

Skip to about a half an hour in.  Maeve is running up to kids and saying "Hi", which is as close as she gets to introducing herself.  She is willingly taking turns on equipment and sharing balls and hula hoops.  Of course, she's also organizing all the hula hoops into one place and the balls in another, but she cannot help being her Daddy's daughter.

Skip to the last ten minutes we were there.  Maeve watches two bigger girls (okay, they were her size, but obviously like 4 years old) jump off a 5 foot tall mat into the foam pit.  She stands up, runs up to the edge of the mat, then slides off her tummy backwards into the ball pit, feet first.  And is so wildly proud of herself, it's all over her face like spaghetti sauce.  I practically give her a standing ovation.  So she does that over and over for the last ten minutes, and very nearly had a fit when I told her we had to leave.

Now, I am grateful that my child is not a dare-devil, that's the last thing I need.  But I love seeing her overcome her fears and anxieties.  I didn't remotely push her to try anything she didn't want to do, she just stepped right into it and amazed me.  Again.