The Clarke Family: Oh what a show!

Rylan's last week of his gymnastics class at the Little Gym was this Wednesday. I remember thinking January seemed so far away when we enrolled in Septmember, but the time flew by. He looked forward to his class each week, loved his teacher Mrs. Evelyn, learned to follow directions better, take turns with other kids, and even tackled a few new skills.
The last week was called "Show Week" and parents and family members were invited into the actual gym so each child could demonstrate their skills up-close. I haven't been able to go to a lot of Rylan's classes because of working, so I was really excited to see him on his special day. The teachers reminded us parents to keep realistic expectations of our kid's behavior that day, and little did I know they would be talking to us!
Rylan's good buddy arrived soon after he did. The two boys were doing some good-natured "boxing" moves and Rylan's friend accidentally got slightly hurt from a bump to his glasses. Unfortunately, Rylan's friend was never able to recover from that rough start, couldn't be comforted and had to leave class without participating at all. I felt terrible that we played a role, however accidental, in ruinig his big day, but was thankful that Rylan seemed on track with participating. At first... He made it through the balance beam and the uneven bars before the "pressure" got to him and his naughty switch flipped. Then started what turned out to be the biggest meltdown of Rylan's young life. We ended up leaving class early as I had to haul Rylan out to the car, barefoot, kicking and screaming. At the end the class, they put out a podium, played Olympic music, and awarded each child a medal. Rylan missed it all because he was crying hysterically and refused to go up there. (While we were occupied with her brother, Caroline thoughtfully streaked to the podium during another child's turn to claim the medal for him.)
Rylan screamed the entire drive home, threw toys out of his room, refused lunch, and finally cried himself to sleep. We were all exhausted and really sad to see what should have been a special day so spectacularly ruined. Shouldn't these tantrums be over now that he is 4 years old? The poor guy hasn't been sleeping great this week and he definitely doesn't handle change well, so I guess it was an explosive combination.
Charlton did get some good pictures before the Huge Meltdown of 2011. You would never be able to guess the drama that is coming..

Hello Rylan!

He really loves the uneven bars and we practiced on the tree branches in our front yard all during the fall.

Showing off some upper body strength.

Great flip, buddy.

Rylan likes the balance beam, too.

Showing off his balance with his wonderful teacher, Mrs. Evelyn.

As much as Rylan loves his gymnastics class, Caroline goes absolutely crazy with joy on the equipment. When she had an opportunity for some free play with Rylan's class, she raced around so fast to each station, I could hardly keep up. Her face says it all! I hope we will be able to let her take her own class when she gets a bit older.