move over mary lou...

so for a month now fantasia earned the ability to go to gymnastics. sounds harmless enough. not so. each week there is some sort of dramatic event that happens. i will write about 2 of them...

week 1: i took fantasia. let me preface this by saying that she is a 5'5" 11 yr. old girl who has an ongoing love affair with her hannah montana fake ponytail. she won't leave home without it. it is one of those obvious fake ones, with hot pink hair mingled with brown. it is long and curly and goes against all desires that i have to NOT stick out in a crowd but...of course...it's her choice. so i tell her before we leave that she should probably take it out but she refuses. whatever.

we get there, i register her & she joins the others in class. they have a loft-type of section you can walk upstairs to look at all of the classes in this enormous gym. i settle in for some high-quality entertainment.

they start with somersaults. i immediately see there will be some issues with the fake ponytail. but fantasia doesn't want people to know it's not real (because hot pink hair looks so natural) so she keeps it in, tucks her chin down & leans down to roll over. as her head hits the mat she starts shrieking...extremely loudly. it echoes throughout the entire gym. she stands up grabbing her head and BFF-the fake ponytail- while continuing to shriek. have i mentioned this girl is dramatic? i roll my eyes and sigh while i start down the stairs. i get to walk across the entire gym, go ask her for her hair & then get to walk back across while holding onto this brown & pink dead rat. the best part is? as i'm walking away, fantasia...who also doesn't want people to know she's in a group home...yells out, "THANKS MOM!" aside from the obvious differences in our colors of skin, she towers above me & we look nothing alike.

week 3:
carmella takes fantastia. it's all fine & good until class is over, when carmella hands fantasia her night-time meds to take. well of course, she can't have people know that she's taking meds so instead of just taking them quickly, she starts to run away from carmella (which she knows she's not supposed to do) with her meds in her hand and a smirk on her face. she runs through the gym....there are still classes going, mind you...and trips over one of the mats, spilling the meds everywhere. then she starts screaming, "HELP! CARMELLA HELP!! HELLLLLPPPP!!" (she had not hurt herself in any way) which again echoes throughout the whole gym. carmella couldn't help but laugh out loud.

i keep trying to convince myself that one day i will be joining the hushed crowds at the 2020 olympics as i watch fantasia do her dismount on the balance beam...pink and brown fake ponytail flying through the air...or i'm sitting down to breakfast one day & there she is on the front of my wheaties box....and chuckling about the beginning of her career. for some reason though, my brain is having a hard time swallowing that possibility.