Kylee had her first gymnastics meet on Jan. 9th. Kylee, Kaden and I traveled down to Salt Lake and stayed at a hotel Thursday night.
I pulled Kylee out of school an hour early SOLELY for the purpose of making it to Einstein’s Bros Bagels in Layton before they closed at 5. Yes, I like it. Also, Kylee really, really wanted to go swimming in the hotel pool and we had plans to go to dinner with my friends so we would not have had time otherwise. But mostly, it was for the bagels. What else would we have eaten at 7 am before the meet?
We got into Salt Lake just before 5 and checked into our hotel. We used points from our Marriott credit card and got a hotel just down the street from the Salt Palace where her meet was. Kaden was very ready to eat by the time we got there so we got to the room and I fed him. Then we left to meet Marci and Karlee for dinner at Rubio’s.
I chose Rubio’s because it’s something we don’t have here, and it’s not a sit-down restaurant that would take forever. As much as Kylee likes being one of the big girls, she doesn’t really have that much fun sitting at a table with me and my friends. Plus, she really wanted to have time to swim and I really wanted her to get to sleep at a decent time because the meet was early in the morning.
Kylee and I both loved what we had at Rubio’s so much that we ended up eating there for lunch the next day too. After hitting up Trader Joe’s. We couldn’t think of any other place we wanted to eat. I despise fast food (though I will eat it when I have to). And I really like eating places we don’t have at home. But we were in a bit of a hurry to get on the road so we didn’t want to sit and wait for a pizza at Pier 49 (even though that place is goooood). Anyway, we also went to get some frozen yogurt after our dinner and visited a little longer with Karlee.
Then Kylee went swimming while I fed Kaden at the pool. We were the only people there, luckily. Kylee doesn’t mind playing by herself and she was sad when I told her it was time to go.
We went back to the room and got cleaned up and ready for bed. Kylee was in bed before 9:30, but Kaden was fussy (as he usually is in the evenings) so it was hard for me to get ready for bed and try to keep him quiet enough for Kylee to sleep. But I nursed him and he went to sleep quite easily around 10:30. By then Kylee was fast asleep.
Kaden woke up at 5 to eat but I snatched him up before he made too big of a fuss so Kylee didn’t even stir. I was worried if she was woken at that time she would be too excited to go back to sleep. I pulled Kaden into bed to nurse him and then fell back asleep. I slept restlessly, besides having a baby next to me and being in a strange bed. I was nervous about getting to the meet on time and since it’s our first one, I didn’t know what to expect. At one point I woke up and panicked, feeling like I had been asleep for awhile and I was just sure that I had overslept and that it was past 7. It wasn’t.
I pulled Kylee out of bed at 6:50 and she got dressed and then hung out with Kaden while I did her hair. Kaden got fussy, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I wasn’t going to have time to nurse him again before we left. It shouldn’t be a big deal, it had barely been over two hours since he ate. But he was fussy. It took me awhile to braid Kylee’s hair and get it into a bun (there are a lot of rules with gymnastics –hair has to be slicked back, can’t touch shoulders or floor or you get deducted, can’t have pins in the hair, can’t have nail polish or earrings, etc…) Kaden was fussing quite a bit. I heard a noise from one of the other rooms, and only then did it occur to me that there were probably other people trying to sleep and they could hear a baby crying for quite a long time. They probably weren’t thrilled about that. Oh well. I can’t tell you how many doors closing and toilets flushing I heard throughout the night while I was trying to sleep.
We got finished and packed up and headed out right on time, giving us a good 10 minutes extra in case we didn’t find it right away. I had looked up parking options previously and decided on the underground lot closest to our hotel, I had no idea where the meet was in the building. Right when we walked into the Salt Palace, there was a large room with something going on that looked like it could’ve been gymnastics and for a second I thought we had gotten extremely lucky. I was wrong. It was fencing. They told us the gymnastics was in “hall 4” and pointed down the hall. I was carrying the car seat (since I wanted the seat to put Kaden down if I needed to) and I couldn’t fit the stroller in my car that goes with the seat. I sort of wish I had one of those little car seat carrier strollers that is otherwise quite small. But the baby only travels around in his car seat like this for a few months before he’s old enough to be in a regular umbrella stroller without the car seat so it doesn’t make sense to buy one.
Anyway, I was packing the car seat and my rather large purse which had my water and my big camera in it so it was quite heavy. Kylee had her gym bag which I had packed Kaden’s extra clothes and blanket and such. And we walked. The lady made it sound like it was just down the hall. It wasn’t. It was up the escalators, down the hall, around the corner, down the hall again, down a little ramp, around the corner, down the hall, down the stairs, around the corner… You think I’m kidding, but I’m not. It was probably the furthest away from our car as you could get. I have bruises on my hips, legs, and arms from the car seat. But the point is that we made it there and we were on time. They had not started warming up yet so it was perfect. I didn’t get a seat in the closest stands. I could have, but they were quite crowded and I knew I needed to sit down and nurse Kaden, even though he had fallen back asleep. He was due to eat. So I went to the seats that were mostly empty. Another mom I had met at a meeting previously came and sat by me and we visited while we watched the girls warm up. It was nice having someone to chat with. Eventually I pulled Kaden out and nursed him. I don’t usually think twice about nursing him, but I don’t often do it in such a public setting. I felt like I was getting some unapproving looks, but what do you do? The way it worked out, but the time he was due to eat again, the girls were done and just waiting for awards. We had to move to a smaller corner of the room to await the results and it was really close quarters and I was sitting right next to my neighbor and her husband and her son, so it wasn’t a good spot to nurse a baby. Kaden was patient. I felt bad that he had to wait a few times during this trip, but he’s usually quite spoiled so I guess it’s okay.
Alright, let’s get onto how Kylee performed! She started on Vault. Vault is strange for level three. The basically just jump up to a handstand on the mat and the fall flat, then sit up to salute. It’s pretty boring and doesn’t look like there’s much skill involved. This was the only event that I didn’t get a video of because I was so far away, I was nursing, and there’s just not much to see. At her little practice meet she scored over 9, so I was a little surprised when she only got an 8.3. Watching her, I could see that her hands were sliding on the mat, and at first she forgot to salute before she got up to get off. So it wasn’t her best. I started getting a little worried that she wasn’t going to do as well at the actual meet as she did at the exhibition at home.
Next they went to Bars. She looked really good warming up, though Yulia was helping her with a few things. But when it was her turn, she did wonderfully. Here’s her video.
She scored 9.0. She
says she would’ve done better if she didn’t take such a big step on the
dismount. And her coaches have worked
with her on bars this last week too (she came home really worn out and said she
had to keep doing her shoot-through over and over until she got it perfect and
her arms really hurt, poor thing). I’m
not sure how you complain about a 9.0, though.
I was very proud.
Next they moved on to Beam.
This is where they ended up waiting for like 45 minutes.
And I played on my phone for awhile. Kaden was so good!
Then she warmed up on the beam and I snapped a picture.
And finally after what seemed like forever, I got the video
of her doing her routine. The music playing was not for her, it was someone else doing their floor at the same time. (This one was too long so I had to trim it and shrink it before I could post it so you don't see her mounting the beam.)
She scored 8.625. She
actually scored 8.725 but she went over on time so she was deducted for
that. She told me she got buzzed, but
she thought it just meant she had 10 seconds left, which it does the first
time. But then they buzz you two times
and that means you’ve gone over. This
has never been a problem with her before and looking at the video the only
thing I could see was that she was slower getting on the beam. She explained that she accidentally touched
the beam before she was quite ready, and that’s when they start your time. And that she was standing on the wrong side
of the beam, the side she’s not used to, because that’s where the judges were,
so it was tricky to get on. It’s all
understandable, and I’m glad she can recognize where she was docked because I
certainly don’t know much about gymnastics scoring. Anyway, beam has always been her strongest
area (even though she enjoys bars more) and she did a really wonderful job on
it. Again, she scored higher at the meet
at home so I wasn’t really expecting her to place that high with a 8.6 (spoiler
alert- she took second).
Then onto Floor. Here is her routine. (I also had to shrink this one, sorry if it's hard to see.)
She did a great job!
She scored 9.0. There were a few
things I noticed that she didn’t do at the exhibition, just little things that
she probably got docked for. But all in
all it was awesome. She was the very
last one to go, and then we moved over for the awards.
We waited for a LONG time for the awards. I couldn’t figure out how it could take so
long to do the math real fast. Don’t
they have a computer program that does it all for them? It really took a long time. Kylee was sitting with her level 3 team in front
of the stage while we waited so I hadn’t had a chance to talk to her yet. Finally they started announcing the winners
starting with the few level 2 girls, then going onto the youngest level 3
girls, which is Lexi’s group. Then finally
Kylee’s group. She placed 3rd
on bars, 2nd on beam, and tied for 3rd on floor. Then she took 5th overall for her
age group. I know it doesn’t seem to add
up that she only took 5th.
But when I looked up all the scores online later I found that she placed
14th on vault. So that is why
she didn’t get a higher overall place.
They did team awards as well and our team took 2nd, which was
awesome! They got big trophy. There was only one other trophy that our whole team won for a different level, but it was smaller, I think maybe 5th place. So go Level 3s!
I was so happy and proud that Kylee had gotten so many
medals. When I was sitting by Lexi’s mom
waiting for the awards, she was going on and on about how great Kylee did and
how good she looks out there with her long, lean legs. Lexi had not had the best scores this meet so
her mom was worried she wouldn’t get any medals and she would be bummed. But she did end up taking 8th for
her age overall (they went out to like 12 or more places). Actually, when I was looking at the scores it
said that Lexi had tied for 5th on one of them but I think she just
didn’t hear her name or something. So
she was due another medal. Bummer.
Anyway, I was so excited to see Kylee feeling proud. I took a picture of her and Lexi with my
phone real fast.
And then I could tell that Kylee didn’t look well. And sure enough, she started crumbling. I had given her a granola bar and she had
eaten it while they waited and drank almost all her water so she should’ve been
ok with sustenance. And I’m sure she was
tired from the exertion, but they hadn’t done that much, not even as much as a
normal gym practice I don’t think. I was
really confused. She complained about
being hot and not feeling well and immediately wanted to take off the medals
because they were heavy. I tried to make
it fun saying it must be hard to carry so many medals on her neck, but she was
just upset. I was a little worried
knowing how far we had to walk to get back to the car, so I bought her a juice
hoping it would boost her blood sugar and we started the trek back. I asked her if she was disappointed that she
hadn’t gotten first place in anything and she nodded yes. I tried to explain that she was competing
against a lot of people and she got FOUR medals and she did a really great job
and should be proud. She has high
expectations for herself. But she said
that wasn’t why she was unhappy. And as
she made phone calls to Dad and both Grandmas she started perking up and
feeling proud. I realize that she was
just crashing from the high of the meet.
She was so excited for days or weeks leading up to the meet. And she was nervous too. She was excited to travel with just me and
stay at the hotel. She was stressed
about the meet. I think it all just
built up and exhausted her.
But once we got back to the hotel, she was feeling chipper again. I need to get some good pictures of her in
her fancy outfit sometime, but here are the ones from the hotel before she
changed.
On the drive home I asked her if she wanted to set a goal to
get a first place medal sometime and she said yes. I explained that she would have to work
really hard and try and figure out the few areas where she was marked down. She said she wanted to. I also explained that she needs to be
prepared in case she doesn’t get a first place ever. It’s really hard and she does really, really
well even if it’s not first place. But
that is why we analyzed the videos, to help her see why she got points marked
off. You can see the few times she
wobbles on the beam. And she moves her
hands at the beginning. And then on the floor
she doesn’t land her back handspring with her feet as close together as usual,
and there are a couple other things. None
of them are big things. I know being a
perfectionist is not always a good thing and I hope this stays a positive
experience and she isn’t too hard on herself, especially if she ever has a bad
meet.
There was a parent meeting at the gym last week and at one
point the lady was talking about how we should be the cheerleaders and not the
coach. But she said there are times when
we need to encourage them to try harder, or whatever. I was sitting there thinking how I would
never criticize Kylee’s performance or tell her she needs to try harder. She’s already so hard on herself and her
coaches are tough sometimes, I think she might just crumble if I said anything
to her. And I wouldn’t. I think she’s amazing. Truly talented. I now understand what her coaches were
talking about when they used to always tell me how much talent she has and how
she is such a hard worker. Seriously, I’ve
heard that half a dozen times from different people at the gym. It makes sense to me now seeing everyone else
along with her. She’s awesome! I'm really excited for her next meet. (And it's not just because I'm already looking forward to eating at Rubio's again ;)
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