Sis was extremely nervous for months prior to her first ever gymnastics meet. We've been prepping for weeks in hopes of easing her fears. We've been watching Florida, Georgia, Auburn, Penn State and Nebraska women's meets on TV in hopes of giving her a glimpse of what to expect. I bought her a cute necklace as good luck. It has a K charm, a gymnast charm, one that says Gymnastics and one with her birthstone. She was wearing it the days prior to her meet to remind her that she is loved and her momma supports her 100%.
She likes watching the Gators because each floor routine contains a "gator chomp" and that's pretty cool even for a gator hater like me. The Gator girls are also one of the best teams in the country so it's okay for us to cheer for them. Alex McMurtry is her favorite Gator. The SEC channel airs a lot of women's gymnastics because they don't have mens, ice hockey or wrestling to air as well as women's gymnastics. We did catch at PSU/Nebraska meet and record it.
We headed to Orlando on Friday night because her meet warm up started at 8am Saturday morning. She wanted to eat at Panera of all places, so that's where we went.
After dinner I wanted to let her burn off some of her anxiety so we headed to an outlet mall to walk around. She had so much fun shopping. There was a Justice store which she begged me to go into...what?!? Since when does she know about Justice and what happened to my little baby girl? We also hit up the Disney outlet where she bought herself a Perry the platypus stuffed animal from Phineas and Ferb. She loves that show these days!
After our shopping spree, we headed back to our hotel to get a good night's sleep. In the morning we had breakfast in the hotel. They made her pancakes which is her favorite and she was thrilled!
She also ate a whole plate of fruit and bacon!
She was still a bit nervous about her meet, but hiding it well. We got to the hotel that was hosting the meet and her nerves started to get the best of her.
Hanging out with her friend Summer helped her to settle down a bit.
They warmed up then were introduced as a team. There are a lot of level 2's at North Florida. Half of them competed as level 2's last year and Sissy's T/Th practice group are all newbies to competition.
Once she got over her nerves, she did a great job for her first meet. She started on vault which is one of her best and favorite events.
She earned a 9.150 on vault! Whew! A great way to start her meet.
She moved onto bars next. She struggles with her mill circle and sometimes with her back hip circle. Those things considered, she did well.
Sadly, this is true...
Here they are with Coach Katie meeting the bars judges before they performed.
8.775 on bars - not too bad, but room for improvement!
Next they rotated to beam. They warmed up beforehand with Coach Erin and Coach Cailyn.
Her beam routine
She scored an 8.675 - room for improvement on beam too but she likes beam the least so I was just glad she didn't go over time or fall off!
Her last event was floor. She does well with floor but got a bit ahead of her music. Nerves did that to a few of our girls.
She pulled off a 9.0 on floor. If she'd have stayed with her music better, her score would have been better. Hoping her next meet she can score higher because she's done it before under meet conditions. I was still proud of her regardless. She did really well and I wasn't sure what to expect. She exceeded my expectations for sure!
Afterwards the team went next door to the awards room to see how everyone did.
They had a 6 and under division within the Level 2's. Sissy is the youngest on her team - some teammates are in 3rd and 4th grade! To my complete surprise, Sissy earned a 3rd place in vault, bars, beam, floor and the 3rd place All Around! She was as surprised as I was. She was OVER THE MOON excited to come home with 5 medals!
She came running back to me afterwards grinning ear to ear! She has decided meets aren't so scary now - and they are actually FUN!!!
Her team at North Florida was able to pull off a first place win! How exciting!
Sis with all her teammates and Coach Katie
Sissy and Coach Katie - she really loves Katie! The girls also each received a stuffed dolphin from the meet. She is now convinced that meets are a lot of fun and can't wait for the next one!
Sis and her buddy Darryelle. These two are the youngest on their team. They are both 6 and don't turn 7 until summer.
Since we were in Orlando - near Sea World, I had promised Sis that I would take her over to Disney to ride her new favorite, the Rockin' Rollercoaster. It gave her something fun to look forward to when she was so nervous about her meet. Having passes gives us that flexibility! One the way home she insisted on wearing her medals and ended up falling asleep while wearing them!
What great memories we created! Her next meet is over Valentine's weekend at Disney's ESPN Wide World of Sports. Nanny is going to come with us so she can see Sissy compete. She's super excited for this next one!
Since she now has all these medals, I had to make some place for her to display them in her room. This is what I created using a verse that she chose.
She also suffered her first bar rip last week. Poor baby! We got it healed up pretty quickly but it freaked her out to have Coach Erin rip off the extra flap of skin on her palm! Thankfully there was a sweet older girl nearby who held her hand and distracted her. We used a combination of Preparation H, vitamin E and lavender essential oil.
She slept with a sock on her hand at night with ointment on her hand. Great advice for friends who are former gymnasts and other gym moms!
First day back on the bars - I wrapped it so she wouldn't fuss over it at practice.
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