Tres Rios Project: A Little Gymnast

We have a little gymnast in the making here in Costa Rica. Our main extra-curricular activity for Kate for awhile was swimming lessons, but that quickly came to an end in June when she pretty much refused to transition from the tiny pool to the big kid pool. (You gotta change pools at age 3). At that point, she was still crying regularly at daycare when we dropped her off, and so it just wasn't worth it to force our almost hysterical daughter to get in the big pool. It is, after all, supposed to be fun.

So two months passed with no activities. And we had a very athletic little girl on our hands with no outlet for all her energy.

After setting up a 'gym' in our living room for a few nights, and desperately needing an activity where she could safely jump, run, crawl, swing, hang, flip, or somersault, we finally signed her up for a gymnastics class.

We had driven past the gym dozens of times and I knew it would be a perfect 'sport' for her. But when we first moved here, everything was just too overwhelming and it seemed too scary to stop at the gym and inquire about classes. But now, almost a year into this experience, it wasn't so overwhelming anymore, and it was easy as pie to sign her up!

She started last week, and after some initial separation anxiety and tears with the first two classes, it is now her new favorite thing. It's exciting to finally be at this point in our cultural adjustment, where we can find something we want to do and sign up for it - all on our own.