I think every parent secretly has aspirations of athletic, musical or academic grandeur for their children. Even little achievements such as that first face plant step are met with pride as we vicariously live through them.
The Hurricane has been enrolled in gymnastics this summer and had her first big meet on Saturday. We made a big deal about it and invited The Grandparents who came to our house afterwards for a celebratory brunch.
During warm-up, another little girl showed up wearing Hadley’s exact same leotard. To make light of the situation, I pointed her out to Hadley and commented,”Oh, how fun. You match!”
Instead of delight, they regarded one another with disdain and walked past dismissively. Evidently cattiness starts at a young age. Like, how embarrassing.
Overall, Hadley performed like a champ, expertly navigating the balance beam, flipping on the bars and doing back somersaults on her floor routine. All was going well until the springboard. The kids were supposed to do “The Tigger” bounce through some hula hoops and then launch off the springboard onto a mat. Note: I said supposed to.
Now, to preface this scenario, I need to explain that Hadley has the DNA to jump. Believe it or not, she gets it from me (thought Jamie adamantly disputes this claim). Back in The Day, these short little legs of mine were long jumpers. I would train for hours on our trampoline and I even placed second in the long jump at Calgary’s city finals. Only Claudette Creary, a brawny black girl, could out-jump me. And out-run me. And out-everything me. I wonder if her photo is still on my dartboard back home.
Evidently, I am nothing if not a gracious loser.
So, back to the Hurricane. After breezing through her Tigger bounces, she bolted for the springboard. The problem is, the dear girl did not realize you are supposed to launch off it and not over it.
What followed was not pretty. The dear girl’s takeoff step was about a foot in front of the springboard as she then tried to clear it. For a moment, I swelled with pride as a marveled at my little Hurricane in flight.
But then came the landing.
Suffice it to say, it did not end well for dear little Hadley. Either time.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 