Onward and upward....

Today was the end of an era. Katherine had been looking forward to today for weeks -- actually months. Today was her last gymnastics class in the "little" gym. It's a super cute gym with all kid size equipment, and the kids are in this gym until they start kindergarten. However, when Katherine gets her private lesson each week, Mr. Tarry takes her into the big gym, and she's become VERY aware of the differences between the competitive and recreational side of the big gym. Let's just say she wants NOTHING to do with the recreational side! Imagine that!! LOL.

Anyway, with today being her last class in the "little" gym, and her last class with Mr. Tarry as her coach, I thought I'd feel incredibly sad. I thought I'd be fighting back tears and hoping for another few weeks in the status quo. Boy, was I wrong...

How can I possibly be sad about something she wants so desperately? Something she's wanted to do since she set foot in the big gym.... Something she's been dreaming about for as long as she's taken gymnastics..... Something she was born to do.... So instead of fighting back tears today, we stood talking to Mr. Tarry about her private lesson tomorrow and dreaming about the future -- when he'd be her coach again ..... when she made team.

He also gave each of the kids a progress report that listed all of the skills they'd been working on throughout the year. Katherine's was glowing (of course) and he wrote the nicest note to her -- how talented she was, how much promise as a gymnast she had, how he was looking forward to coaching her again once she made team, and how enjoyable she made his job.

So today there were no tears, just laughter.... It's not even that I forgot to cry.... It's that I didn't have a reason to. Katherine has found her passion in life, and she pursues it with absolute single mindedness. She's more determined to succeed than any five year old I've ever seen, and I have no doubt that's what will take her far in life. And as a parent, that brings nothing but smiles to my face and joy to my heart.

Oh, here's a classic Katherine story....

We were talking about end of the year teacher appreciation gifts, and she decided that she wanted to buy her preschool teachers earrings and Mr. Tarry underwear. No clue where that came from, but I told her absolutely not. We'd be buying him a gift card instead.

So today, she handed Mr. Tarry his thank you card, and felt compelled to say, "Mr. Tarry, I really wanted to guy you underwear, but my mommy said no. So I had to give you this card instead". OK, Katherine... Does he really need to know that???? I swear, this girl has no secrets!! LOL!