When Julia was born we lived in a tiny two-bedroom apartment that she quickly outgrew. She was exhausting! She never read any of the parenting books from "experts" who claimed that children needed to sleep. Julia hardly ever slept. I think that she slept maybe once a week for about an hour that first year of her life. Well, that's what it seemed like anyway. I'm estimating that I slept a grand total of 40 - 42 hours that first year.
When Julia was two years old, it was virtually impossible to stay home. I needed to find places to take her where I could just
“let her run loose.” She was kind of similar to wild animals who need their space to run free. Yes, that’s what I said, she was a wild animal. So I took my little animal to Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood at the Monroeville Mall very frequently.
Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood has a great place where children and little wild animals can climb, run, jump and slide to their heart's content and exhausted moms like me can sit on their butts.
Often times I stuffed a book I was reading in her diaper bag. (What am I talking about? I hardly had time to read books, except for oral reading -Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Bambi and others) But I tried to read at the Mr. Rogers' place. I packed my book, some sippy cups, bottles, diapers and wipes and headed to the Mr. Rogers’ place where she could play and I could read. Many times we stayed over two hours because
Julia was just this non-stop fireball of energy and she needed to wear herself out so she could take a nap.That was the theory anyway. I would converse with other kinda tired parents. Polite people who saw Julia in action would look at me sympathetically and say the only thing that popped into their minds. “She sure has a lot of energy!”, which, of course, translates to, “She is a wild animal!”
The truth was, her energy level, while extremely challenging for some adults to deal with, sent a signal to me that she might be a natural-born-gymnast sort of like I was, only much more advanced. She constantly climbed on the top of the couch and jumped off of it or used my bed as a trampoline to do flips. Other parents might have tried to forbid such things, which started at a VERY early age, but I'm not sure she could have been stopped. It would be like trying to stop an extremely strong-willed train with your bare hands.
God gave Julia to me, I am convinced, because if he gave her to other parents, they would have killed her by the time she turned two. God knows what He's doing!I saw her craziness as a gift and opportunity. She was very strong and coordinated and her flips showed great gymnastics potential and a lot of energy to match. Just like parents of redheads got endless comments about their child’s beautiful flaming hair, I got countless comments about Julia’s abundant energy. I figured I had four options at that point. One, I could put her up for adoption and hope she’d find some young marathon-running mother looking for a child who could keep up with her. Two, I could medicate her with heavily sedating drugs . Three, I could medicate myself. Four, I could enroll her in gymnastics.
Well, after much careful consideration, I chose option number four. Today Julia is a nine-year-old competitive gymnast who mostly uses gymnastics equipment to climb on rather than furniture. Oh sure, occasionally I'll catch her upside down in a handstand with her body in a backbend bouncing off the couch with her feet. It's a huge temptation, so much fun. Today Julia practices at Trinity Gymnastics in Gibsonia, PA three hours at a time, three days a week and she doesn’t really understand the definition of the word “tired”. She's taken gymnastics since before she turned three years old and this is her third year competing.
Did I make the right decision? I’m still not really sure. There are times I sure could use some serious drugs! (My mother, the pronunciation and grammatical
QUEEN, corrected me. It's supposed to be "There are times I surely can use some drugs.") But I do know that Julia loves everything about gymnastics and I wouldn't trade her for anyone else in the world!!! She's my special wild animal gymnast!
Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood was a wonderful place for Julia to go, honing those beginning, basic gymnastics skills. Julia sure (correction- surely) enjoyed the playtime that Mr. Rogers said is vital for children’s development.
What's up with this?
Although Danielle and I had a ROUGH START TOGETHER, which I will write about later in my blog for those of you who didn't read it, my miracle girl is turning 14 years old! Happy Birthday to my favorite niece, Danielle Marie Geertz (right) shown with my favorite older daughter, Kerry. Danielle is fun-loving with a great sense of humor, kind-hearted and truly an amazing teenager who is growing up to be such a beautiful young lady. She is a compulsive but wonderful dancer who tap dances and does ballet, hip hop and jazz all over the place. Danielle is a truly great friend to both of my girls. I marvel at all three of them and their relationships to each other when there are pretty big age differences. Danielle teaches Julia many things about dancing and about life. We all adore "Big D," as she sometimes is called. We better like her because she's here very often, like every weekend, almost all summer and many times when she doesn't have school. Good thing she's easy to love!!!
Julia has plenty of smiles for her first day of school. She goes to a Christian school called "Greater Works." There are only eight children in her class. She likes school and is in 3rd grade.
When Keriann was about five years old, I neatly folded her clean laundry and put the basket on her bed. "Put these clothes away, Keriann, OK?" Then I left for a while. When I returned the empty basket was on her bed and I praised the work she had done. "Great job, Keriann, for putting the clothes away.
