Tumbling and Twirling

Lola has been taking ballet for six months now and still seems to love it. Her teacher, Miss Johanna, is this fabulous 60ish Dutch woman with a waist-long braid and metallic neon leotards. She's elegant, patient, and treats the girls like little grownups. She teaches them the correct terminology for their moves so they know a pirouette from a plie. They love her.

Locke began taking gymnastics in September and he's proven himself to be a talented tumbler. His teacher, Miss Joan, is less of a character than Miss Johanna, but she has a similarly impressive gift of patience, combined with the charisma to keep the kids focused and excited about what they're learning. Locke has learned to do front and back rolls, donkey kicks (a precursor to hand stands), and walk on the balance beam. Lola is joining Locke in the class this session, which began today. She should catch on fast since she spent each of Locke's classes watching intently through the window and then practicing the moves at home.

Here are some pictures from their classes. Lola is third from the left in the picture at the bar.

Write On!

Lola loves letters. She and Locke both ask me to spell words all the time. And they're very good at sounding out words. But Lola has always been more interested in trying to write letters.

She started writing her name when she was 2 1/2. And lately she's been practicing writing other words, especially "Locke," "Mom," and "Dad." Recently, she was drawing while I was making lunch. When I finished, I looked at her picture. It was Locke (I know that it was him because it said "KELOC" — she'd run out of room after the C so she finished the word to left of the beginning, as she often does in that situation). But underneath Locke's name, was the word "GO." I thought it must have been a coincidence, a little doodling next to the picture. But I decided to ask.

"Lola, this picture of Locke is really nice. What's this here?" I asked, pointing to the letters.

"Go" she said and she shrugged like she writes words every day.

I was pretty surprised, to say the least, and my pride could barely be contained in the room.

I was telling a friend about it while we waited outside of Locke's gymnastics class. I didn't think Lola could even hear. She'd been playing with her doodle board (the new etch-a-sketch) and watching the class through the window. But she did hear and she decided to bring over a visual aid. She showed us her doodle board which was empty except for two letters: OG.

"Those are the right letters, Lo." I said. "But they're backwards. That spells 'og.'"

She quickly erased the board and wrote GO.

Then she said, "Let's spell STOP."

So I sounded the word out for her as she wrote all the letters on the board.

It's so exciting that she's actually writing at barely 3 1/2. Sometimes I have to explain how to make certain letters, and sometimes I'll write down a name and let her copy it. But she's off to an incredible start.

If I can't brag on my blog, where can I?

The Art of Negotiation

Locke has developed a very useful new skill. He and Lola were enjoying an afternoon treat of animal crackers. I gave them each a very generous half dozen. After Locke polished off his six cookies, he said, "Mom, may I have five more animal crackers? (Five is his favorite number.)

"You've already had six," I said. I'll give you three more."

"Hmmm." He thought about that for a minute and then countered with, "May I have four more? Four is close to three."

Wow. I guess I'd better brush up on my business and economics to make sure I keep the upper hand. Or maybe I'll just watch more politics.

Olympic Dream

Kelly and I had the amazing opportunity to go to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics in August. Actually, I had the amazing opportunity. Kelly was REQUIRED to go because of his job. I know, tough job, right? Well ... yes. He worked 24/7 the entire time while I went sightseeing, shopping, and, to several unbelievable Olympic events. We actually got to watch history being made as Michael Phelps won his record-breaking 8th gold medal. And we watched the gymnasts rake in a record number of medals too. It truly was the trip of a lifetime.

There were 4 reasons we were able to take this incredible trip: first, as I mentioned, Kelly's job required him to go so I cleverly rode on his coattails, or, rather, United Airlines, to Beijing. The other 3 reasons are Mimi (Kelly's mom), and Grandmommy and Granddaddy (my parents). They came all the way from Texas to keep the darling duo Lola and Locke. How nice was that?

Here are a few pics of them baking biscuits while we were gone, and one of them in their souvenirs afterwards.

Thank you, parents, for allowing us to make this trip. It truly was a once in a lifetime opportunity.