Ring That Bell

Simon At Gymnastics from Ali Edwards on Vimeo.

Today I want to share a success. Because I love celebrating Simon.

Back in May Simon started attending a weekly gymnastics class. The goal was for him to work his body and build strength. It's a class for kids with special needs and he's really enjoyed it from the beginning as long as everything goes how he wants it to go. And because it's real life, some of the social parts have continued to be a challenge for him and we're continuing to work through it (a challenge to the point where he doesn't want to participate and lays on the floor vs. doing the exercises).

Last night he experienced a major success. The kind that builds strength of both body and mind.

Since he started a few months back he's been doing a lot of the same exercises each week, including the one you see in the video above where he goes backwards over the barrel. Last night was the first time he did it all by himself, with strength in his legs to push off and strength in his arms to stop him on the other end. When he started his teacher needed to roll him over the barrel and fully support his arms so he wouldn't hit his head.

The best part was how over-the-top excited he was about mastering this skill.

"Mom!" he said, "I can't believe I'm an expert!"

And then he went right back over and did it again and again with the biggest smile on his face. I live for those smiles.

At this gym when an athlete achieves a goal or masters a significant new skill they get to go ring a bell that sounds throughout the entire gym. People stop what they are doing and clap and cheer.

Simon got to ring the bell last night and it was awesome.

Go, Simon go!