I was so very excited for our Totnastics to start. Not only would it give us something do to once a week that was new and fun, it would keep us out of the heat! Every night when Jeff gets home from work he and the babies have Wrestle Mania. Wrestle Mania includes flips, pillow fights, rolls, hanging upside down, body drops into piles of pillows, you name it they do it. The babies LOVE Wrestle Mania, but especially Heaten. He loves to rough house, hang upside down, flip upside down, and everything else involved in Wrestle Mania. I knew he was going to LOVE totnastics. Rolling, tumbling, hanging, jumping on the trampoline. How much more fun could a kid have?!? Here was Heaten the entire first class…..

I had asked my Mom to go with me to the first class so I could get a feel for how it was and make sure that I could do it alone. Yeah, well, I WILL NOT ever be taking them alone. She had to step out of the class for 15 minutes so I was left on my own with two babies, one who cried the entire time and the other who didn’t want to do any of the activities. My anxiety level was through the roof! All of the other kids were older and had been through the class for 2 and even 3 previous sessions. My babies were by far the youngest and I think the class is a little advanced for us. I had a talk with the sub teacher (the regular teacher was sick) and she didn’t make me feel any better. She said without actually saying that I would need help and didn’t encourage me at all. I was thinking that it was a big mistake to enroll them and I was so bummed about it because I had such high hopes they would just love it.


Last week for our second class Jeff was able to attend (Thank you baby!) and I thought for sure Heaten would do better with Dada there. Nope. He still cried the entire time and didn’t want to do any of the activities except the teeter totter. They both LOVED this. Our regular teacher was there so I told her my concerns about the class being too advanced and my handling them alone. She made me feel SO MUCH BETTER. Her name is Ms. Lesley (although she probably spells it Leslie) and she has 6 year old twins. Any twin Mommy knows that when you meet another Mommy of Twins they just get it. They get the logistics of having two and all it entails. She said that she was never able to take both of hers alone and she was even the coach! She said that they were doing great and not to get discouraged…that all of the kids started off exactly the same way and after a couple of sessions (meaning the 6 week course) they start to “get it”. I was so relieved after talking to her. I still won’t be able to take them alone, but hopefully next fall or spring we’ll be at a place that I can do it alone.


July 1st, 2008 at 9:33 am
I’m glad things are looking up for the class (the first class sounds so
disheartening). The teacher sounds great, too. Our first few music classes were
pretty chaotic, with all other children looking like angels to us and ours
looking completely disorganized and random, but they did eventually catch on and
now we miss it (decided not to do it in summer).
July 1st, 2008 at 12:45 pm
All I can say Lesley is GOOD FOR YOU!!! I am so impressed that you took this challenge on. It makes me somewhat want to try it myself, although I have to admit, I don’t even go to Story time at the library!!!
July 2nd, 2008 at 3:35 am
This sounds similiar to the My Gym I took Alex and Will too in the Fall. My experience was very similiar to yours coupled with the fact that the boys were barely 1 when we started. No fun!! Anyway, I think it is great the teacher is supportive…that always helps. I’ll bet once the kids get used to the place and the activities they will be much more manageable and then hopefully you will be able to bring them on your own. It is such a tough balance….you want your kids engaged but you also need to maintain SOME level of sanity!! Way to go for taking the plunge :).