Elite

Leyla's three month trial in Elite is nearly ended. Time flew like the wind raging between the trees. Just yesterday it was the beginning of October... Nine weeks went by in a frenzy of school and training for her and in a battle to understand for me.

Leyla only started gymnastics in July, when she was just a baby. A baby that went to school, but only a little baby, still cuddly, still slightly chubby. Gymnastics was meant to be just a way for my girls to do something healthy. In only 5 short months it became a dream, a life...

When she said without a shadow of doubt that she will be the second Nadia Comaneci, I did not believe her. I smiled, encouraged her by saying that as long as she really wants it everything is possible, but I did not take her seriously. I thought she is just a little child talking. At her age I dreamed of being a painter. Or a doctor. And while I still paint once in a rare blue moon, while I still sometimes heal, I am not a painter or a doctor. But she is a gymnast. Maybe she is not the second Nadia yet, but she surely started on the right foot.

When only a week after starting she was in Pre-Levels, I thought that she will stay there for a year or so... Eight week later she was in an Elite program, for a three months trial... Are only 9 weeks since the school term started... And now she is accepted into Elite on a permanent base...

This time around, I knew she will. I heard her coach praising her enough to know. And yet, I still feel my heart swelling and my head spinning... Where in the world will i find the 10 000$ a year? Is it the best thing for my daughter? Will she be happy? Can I keep up?

But I guess that it is out of my hands and I'll just have to really get used to it... And I am so proud of her! My tiny little baby that became so grown up in only 5 short months!

Gymnast

It is hard, almost impossible for me not to boast about my tiny gymnast. Because tiny she is! Picking her up is like lifting a feather... So frail, so light, and yet so strong!

I can see her little muscles all over her tiny body. She is strong. Her coach was saying that even though she is by far the youngest in the team (6 months younger then the next youngest girl and over one year younger then the others), Leyla is one of the strongest gymnasts in the team.

Leyla is also one of the most dedicated. In more then half the classes she is the hardest working girl. Flexible, she bends into shapes I could not know the human body can bend.

Sometimes her very young age shows, when her concentration slips towards the end of the three and a half hours of gruesome training. Not for long, and she regains it quickly, but she does do it. And yet, when we get home, long past her normal bedtime, she is still bouncing around like a pin pong ball.

Her coach said that Leyla blew her mind away with her willingness to train through pain, to jump back on the bars when rips break on her little hands. Her palms and fingers, so soft before, are callused now. But are still the hands of a five year old that juggles long hours at school with long hours of hard training, and still has the energy to just be a normal child.

Last night, her coach said that Leyla amazes her with her powerful body, her flexibility and concentration, with her talent and strong mind. A coach that hardly ever praises said that she can see Leyla making it.

My heart just melts, when I look at this little child tht is mine while belonging to herself.