A Sobering Reminder

My older daughter has been doing gymnastics for 3 years now, and she started team gymnastics last week, which coincidentally was also the first week of first grade. She's still adjusting to the full-day run at school, and has been a little cranky in the evenings as she works out the kinks.

My wife and I marvel every night over how it is that she has gotten so big so fast, and we're getting used to how to deal with a smart and savvy little girl who is adamantly trying to assert herself in every way. We've gotten past the angst of waving to our little girl as she hops on the bus, and we assume she's in good hands and all set for the day.

Team gymnastics brings a more advanced class, new girls and adds an extra day of practice per week. We took her to the first class, and things appeared to be fine from the glass observation room. She did the routines well and seemed happy.

Sunday night she came into our bed because she had a bad dream, which is usually a sign of something bothering her, but she didn't divulge anything Monday morning. She got off the bus from school that day and had a meltdown that she didn't want to go to gymnastics...it's too hard...I don't like the class. She was actually worrying about gymnastics the next day without us knowing.

After some investigation, we found out that the first day she ended up in the wrong group for the first few minutes of the beginning of the new class and it really upset her.

And, like a brick wall, it hit us that our big girl still needs us. We've gotten so comfortable with the "go ahead, honey, see you in an hour" that we forgot on her first day with the new gymnastics routine, she needed a little "orientation" with mom and dad to help her get adjusted.

Just when we think we've got it all figured out and under control, we get a curve ball to keep us on our toes. But it's nice to know that while she doesn't like to show it on the outside all the time, our little girl still needs us just as much.