Peanut Butter and Jelly

I signed Eliza up for her first gymnastics class this winter. It's called Peanut Butter and Jelly gymnastics, hence the title of this post.

It's been even more fun than I could have imagined. It's especially been great for cold winter days to have a huge indoor area for Eliza to go wild in.
They have the class set up in a huge gym. They fill about a 1/4th of it with giant mats and plush tunnels for the kids to climb on, through, over and around. Then they also have dozens of balls and hula hoops for the kids to go to town with.
It's a very unstructured gymnastics class for kids ages 2-4. We snuck Eliza in early, but don't worry, she totally holds her own. Anytime a kid even remotely bumps her, she shakes her finger at them and says, "No, no, Baby!" She's obviously an only child. We're still working on her social interaction skills.
The other room they have is the tumbling room. It's covered in mats and has stuff like the spring board and balance beams. And guess what? Eliza totally rocks the balance beam! I wish I had a picture of it, but I'm supporting her at her waist with two hands as she goes across (so no free hand for camera shooting).

Eliza in the tumbling room. She was obsessed with this yellow ball for like 20 minutes.

At the end of the class is parachute time. Each of the kids and their parents grab a handle and "shake shake shake" and watch the balls bounce around in the middle. And then of course, we then lift it high and then kids get to run underneath. Eliza LOVES this part. It's like a GIANT blanket to hide under. It's hilarious to watch her crawling under there.Unfortunately we only have two more weeks left. :( It's gone by wayyy too fast.

We also have Eliza in a Mini-Mozart class on Friday's that Steve takes her to during his lunch break. It's a very fun class too. They do drawings on a big mural piece of paper that they tape to the wall because the instructor says that studies have shown that children draw differently when there's music playing. They also have tons of fun instruments to play with and different colored sashes to dance around with.

It's kind of funny to see the difference b/t the parents who have their kids in gymnastics vs. music class. The gymnastics parents in general look pretty fit and sometimes seem to be having as much fun as their kids. There is one dad who spends most of the time throwing footballs into one of the corners of the gym while his four year old runs around elsewhere. The music class has umm... more creative, laid back seeming parents. But I guess I'm making generalizations.

We do the classes just through the local rec. center, Carver's. It's only $35 for 12 weeks of classes. Sooo worth it to me. I'm hoping to get Eliza signed up for a Creative Movement and music class for toddlers this next round. It was full last time.

Fun times!