I think Rejeanne is amazing. I really do. I've been wanting to get her to try gymnastics because it is a way she can be up high and doing wild stuff without getting in trouble. She has incredible balance, too! Unfortunately, with any endeavor, there is the autism in the way of immediate satisfaction. It usually requires a few sessions of her curled into a ball howling before she's willing to even take a look at what you want her to do. With this grand gymnastics experiment, I thought if I could try to prep her with YouTube videos of gymnasts doing awesome stuff, it might make her more willing to participate when she saw the equipment.
I don't know if it was the prep, the actual full night's sleep she had last night, or just purely the grace of God, but Rejeanne actually warmed up and participated at her FIRST gymnastics class!!! She rolled the ball, went into the ball pit, spent a TON of time on the balance beam, got on the tramp, and was SO FLIPPIN' HAPPY!! She was chattering the whole time. She let a stranger pick her up out of the ball pit. She said she had fun. She was so excited. I seriously almost started crying. I can't remember the last time she was so happy, talkative and engaged. I'm so thankful for the upper elementary principal/gym coach, the gymnastics student and the parks dept who all had a hand in giving Rejeanne a chance to do this.
I wish I had thought to get a video of it. Maybe I will try to sneak one next time!
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