This is kind of a big deal

Allyson started gymnastics back in September, so nearly 3 full months ago. Our gym recently moved locations at the beginning of November, so prior to that the parent viewing area was terrible and you could barely see what was going on. Well now you are above the entire gym floor and can see everything that is going on, which I really like. Since the move I have come to realize how hesitant Ally actually is of letting her instructors help her; she doesn't like for them to touch her. And she flat out refuses to do forward rolls (and backwards ones as well), it is the oddest thing. She has grown scared of doing them. I'm sure you are thinking "it's fine, she will do one in her own time", but she has built up this fear and I can see this fear playing out in other aspects of her life as well...not healthy.

Shawn and I both have worked with her at home on forward rolls and the tears start flowing and she will NOT do it. We've tried being patient with her, bribing her, threatening her {I know, parents of the year}, but nothing works...she isn't having it.

Well, yesterday before gymnastics class I told her that if she did a roll at class then we would take her out to eat, where ever she wanted to go. {Thinking that she would say McDonald's or Chick-Fil-A.} She then proceeds to tell me "the place with bread and grapes." I said Olive Garden? She said yes, that's the place!! Haha!! I told her "you've got it, if you do a forward roll at class we will take you there Friday night." I kept pumping her up for class, telling her she could do it and we even called Daddy before class to let him know what was going on and he encouraged her as well.

We go to class and what do you know?? They didn't even work on rolls at class! Boo to that! Of course. So, this morning while we were eating breakfast I started thinking about it and told her that I wanted her to do ONE forward roll today. She agreed to try one. She is all fine and dandy...until we lay the blankets out on the floor and it is go time, then she turns into a recluse. I mean the tears start flowing, she doesn't want you to touch her, it's crazy. I usually just give up after a few minutes of her crying, but something was different this morning. I kept on encouraging her, telling her she could do it. She would go into the lean position and stand up and ask if she was finished, while wiping tears. Jase was on the couch watching us and would say "this will take forever." I periodically grabbed Finn and would help him do a roll and show her how it's done. I would also {in my moo-moo...nice visual} do rolls for her. I mean I was trying everything: kept reminding her of Olive Garden, told her that we weren't stopping until she did one forward roll...I wanted her to break past the fear she has created over this forward roll.

I'm not lying, but I must have begged, pleaded, threatened, encouraged her to do a roll for 25 minutes and finally either something clicked or she was tired of me, but she finally decided to do one. After she finally attempted one, she kept on and kept on. While they are not perfect, she is at least trying, which is LEAPS and BOUNDS from where she was. So proud of her! Here is some footage of this morning!

And as promised we went to the bread place with grapes!

She was happy, happy, happy with her bread stick!