J

Let me tell you a story.  Once upon a time, I started coaching here in California.  And when I started coaching, it was the first time I had coached sooo soo many preschool gymnastics classes everyday all day.  And I've talked about my favorite class from those first couple months here.  I also had my not so favorite class.  Three 3-year olds.  Not hard right?  3 kids, when normally a class has between 5 and 7 kids.  But oh my goodness this poor class.  2 boys.  One girl.  Angel girl who is actually a pretty talented little gymnast who I caught singing popcorn popping one time (but that's a story for another time).

My gym is decently small.  We put classes and little circuits (obstacle courses) in small spaces so we can maximize gym use.  So during the 3:30 hour, as most gyms know, the gym gets to be pretty crowded with lots of classes going on.  And keeping these three kids in our little area and out of the way of getting squashed by bigger kids was my main goal for this little class.  Now.  The class at first was just two, one boy and one girl, and manageable.  But add my dear little friend J to the mix and all chaos ensued.

Luckily I work with splendid other coaches who knew what I was going through and most were understanding when all the sudden J or the other boy would sprint off across the middle of the floor to get trampled.  As I have since learned, it takes three weeks for kids to get it.  And I had J for about three weeks of him sprinting off when my schedule got flipped around and I got taken off his class to coach some of the older girls.  Another coach coached him for a while, and he just lost interest I guess cause I realized I stopped seeing him at class.

And then came this week.  He signed up for summer camp.  3 straight hours of Jad.  With 6 other kids between the ages of 3-4.  Needless to say I was a little scared for this week.  Scared is an understatement.  I had Jad, another girl who just barely turned 3 last week, plus some other characters.

But let me tell you.  I love J.  We finally get each other.  When the huge group of camp is playing a big game, or practicing for their big performance, both J and I know he can't pay attention, so today for example, we took a break and built towers to karate kick down.  I had to leave for part of the day today to set stuff up for my parent tot class that I teach, and he came up and gave me this huge hug.  He wanted to show off to me his winnie the pooh and tigger crocs.

I am by no means a perfect coach.  I still have tons and tons to learn.  But sometimes it's breakthroughs like this that make it worth it.  Still exhausting.  But worth it.   I love it.  I feel like I learn and grow each day, and I don't feel that that is going to stop anytime soon which is exciting to me :)