Birdie the Beast

This morning Birdie went to her first Little Gym class.  The parent-child class sequence is: Bugs, Birds (!), Beasts, Super Beats.  Clara may be Our Bird, but she was never a Little Gym Bird.  Her inaugural class was a Beast class and Brigade, she tore it up!  She was a true beast!  When we arrived, a Birds class was finishing up so Clara stood with her face pressed to the glass windows, looking into the gym at all of it.   That was when Julie heard, "Hey. . .I know you!" and turned around to find her friend Nell and her son Jackson waiting for the Beasts class to begin, too!  Hooray!

When Teacher Katie opened the door and the Birds were out, Our Birdie marched right in and plopped herself down on the red mat and waited for all the fun to begin.  She watched everything Teacher Katie did, and did everything Teacher Katie said to do.  Teacher Katie, at least for today, was the bomb.  Birdie marched, ran, galloped, and jumped in a circle.  She especially loved running.  She pulls one knee up super high when marching, but hasn't yet mastered the whole left-left-left-right-left-military-marching-drill drill.  She does actually jump once in a while, but hasn't really realized that she's done it, so mostly her jumping looks like a deep knee bend.

No class for tots is complete without a parachute activity.  A favorite is to ask all the kids to sit in its middle, while the big people hold its edges and turn it.  This activity was always sure to make Clara burst into tears before, but today, she went right to the middle and sat down when Teacher Katie asked.  Clara looked back at Julie like, "Um, Teacher Katie said to sit in the middle.  Where are your listening ears?"  But then the parachute started spinning, and Julie watched Clara's face light up like a sparkler.  She loved sitting in the middle and being twirled, for the first time ever.

Birdie also loved exploring all of the equipment in the gym.  She held Julie's hand and marched herself along the high balance beam, and especially loved the uneven bars.  She grabbed on the the low one several times and swung herself off. No flies on Birdie.  She can fly!  Brigade, if you could see her, your hearts would feel like they were flying, too.