Cat Herding

Over the past 8 weeks, Tabby took both gymnastics and dance from our local recreation district. I’m a huge fan of their classes because they’re very affordable and they’re realistic about what a 2.75 year old can do and how long they can do it for (classes are 45 minutes). They also have classes that I can take her to (evenings and weekends!). Wunderbar.

We quickly dubbed Tabby’s classes Cat Herding class. Truly, they were my bi-weekly dose of humor. Inevitably at some point each class, one of the kids would take off. Tabby was a frequent offender, particularly in dance where she wasn’t as interested. She likes gymnastics much better, particularly her teacher, Miss Katie.

As a culmination to the 8 weeks of fun, they do a “recital” (Cat Herding: The Musical!) and a “meet” (Cat Herding: The Olympic Event). Friday night was the recital and Tabby’s group (all three of them) got up on stage and did their thing to “Colors Make Me Happy” (it’s from Barney, feel glad if you can’t place it). They accomplish their routine by following their instructor who’s on the floor facing them. At one point they had to do a twirl. Tabby twirled and twirled and twirled and then teetered and almost took out another kid. It was awesome.

The meet was at the ungodly hour of 8 AM on a Saturday. They rotated between the four events: skinned the cat on bars, running jump off the spring board on vault, silly walk + somersaults on floor and beam walking sideways and forward on beam. Tabby made it through the whole thing and did everything as expected with a little help. Afterward she told me she only wants to do gymnastics next time.