I had my final gymnastics competition of the season. I didn’t do as well as I wanted, but did much better than last competition.
He said
We got a lot fo the final pieces in place this week for the new trailer. We also heard from the manufacturer via dealer that it is slated for production, completion and delivery by the second week in May. It means our first weekend out at the end of April will be in Wolfie Too, and then we will switch over hopefully in time to have the new one for the May long weekend camping trip. I have already started ordering the stickers we need to replace that we had on Wolfie Too. Danielle had thought maybe we would do something different with this trailer, but Emelia and I vetoed that decision and have started mapping out what ones we want to get.
With all the trailer talk the last few weeks, we haven’t spent a lot of time talking about Emelia’s gymnastics. This weekend was her last official competition of the season. We were off to Whitby for the ‘Seas’ The Day competition hosted by Whitby Gymnastics and Circus. It was the last event that their team would attend and the last attempt to build scores that will qualify the girls for the WAG Ontario Provincial Championships. The girls top two competition scores are use to qualify for the Provincials – and since the GW Elites attended 3 competitions, this afforded the ability to leave behind the worst score.
With Emelia’s last competition in Blenheim not being her best, she was happy to have one more opportunity to maybe qualify for Provincials. She has been working really hard the last few weeks and been focused and nervous – more so than she would let on. She – like her mother – has already set herself up protectively for the disappointment assuming that she won’t make the cut and be called to compete Provincially. But, ever the optimist, I haven’t ruled it out until we officially hear she hasn’t. I did know that the competition this week would mean a lot for that to happen.
A long time ago we settled that we would make a special trip out of this one and book a fun hotel down in Toronto, make a trip to Ikea, and have some fun in the big city. Through work I got a great deal on the Delta Marriott Toronto East that featured a big water slide, water park and it was only 25 minutes from the competition. We started the day with a shopping trip to the Vaughan Ikea and then got over set up in the hotel and down to the pool and waterslide for some shenanigans—I, of course, got a good sit in the jacuzzi tub. We ordered in pizza and had a nice, relaxing evening in the room to hopefully take the stress away for Emelia.
The competition today varies in who you talk to as to whether it was a success. If you ask Emelia, she did horrible and it was the worst. If you ask Danielle & I, we are so damned proud of her for how well she did, how consistent her scores were and how well she represented her gym. She has scored above 35 (perfect 10’s gets you 40) in two competitions this year and medalled in two events. She however, is focused on the fact that she didn’t get a single medal today. What she is overlooking is that the delta in the high to low scores in all 4 of her events today was a measly 1.4 pts from first to last. She is also overlooking that of all the Level 4 girls that competed today (17 total) for her gym, only 4 of them had better overall scores than she did. And most importantly she had a season best performance on the Uneven Bars which has been her nemesis for the last two seasons.
We’re super proud of her and deep down I love how competitive she is and that she’s disappointed she didn’t do better. But we also she can put some perspective on this and realize what she accomplished and listen to others when they say how well she did, rather than listening to her inner monologue some times. And the truth is, in my mind, I haven’t ruled out the possibility that she just may qualify for those Provincials!
She said
This week has been a week and a half for sure. Emelia started out the week still battling some illness and pain. We had to get her into urgent care to start the week with the hope of finding out answers to her lingering and progressing tailbone pain. After spending over 2 hours in urgent care with a thorough exam and an x-ray later a break or displaced tailbone was ruled out. Good news. Bad news is that the doctor figures that this is yet another thing that is stemming from her stomach problems. We were instructed to go back to our family doctor to update them on yet another problem tied to her stomach so we can add things to her medical chart and hopefully get to the bottom of this mess. We are on more medication for her to help with the stomach/tailbone pain.
With the fun of a kid that was battling pain and starting to feel like a pile of crap the upcoming competition was a concern. We did everything we could to keep her healthy and comfortable and hoped things would go well today. Friday night we took the night easier post her last minute practice and had her best friends over as a good distraction from the upcoming weekend. We finished packing up and getting ready to hit the road the next morning. Saturday morning we headed off to Toronto to make it a fun family weekend and let Emelia have a great night before her last qualifying competition.
Saturday morning we made good time and hit up Ikea first. Emelia adores going to Ikea so it was a fun few hours. We stocked and restocked a few things for the new trailer. We had to buy replacements for items for some things we cannot move over from the old trailer and bought some things we will need for the new spaces in the new trailer. It made things pretty real that we will be camping soon and sooner than we know it in the new trailer.
Once we wrapped up at Ikea we called and were able to check in a bit earlier to the hotel. We arrived to chaos! The hotel was fully booked which we knew but what we didn’t know is that there was a massive dance competition taking place in the ballroom. This meant the hotel was booked but booked with massive amounts of unsupervised children! The kids were everywhere. In spite of all of it we had an amazing time, the hotel was great and Emelia loved the pool and waterslide.
With a few dips in the pool and snacks bought we headed to the room for the night and an attempt at an early night for Emelia to get her healthy for the morning. Emelia had been battling an achy tummy and cold so we wanted her in bed hoping for a healthy morning. She crashed pretty early and fast. Unfortunately she woke up really early with a very unsettled stomach and didn’t fall asleep for long after this. Not a great start. When we woke she was telling me how bad her stomach was. I gave her what I could with over the counter meds and let her rest while I got things in order.
After some time we were able to get her dressed and hair ready before heading out to find some breakfast. Her stomach still not feeling 100% she didn’t eat much but we had some snacks packed for the hope she will want to eat later. We arrived at the competition early and this allowed her to see a bit of the session before her and get things settled. Once Emelia hit the floor she seemed to settle in. She was focused and ready. It is always amazing to me no matter how crappy she is feeling or sick she might be she can zone in and be ready.
She moved first to beam which we were happy to have her get over with. She struggled last comp with this element and she nailed it. She was strong and finished each element clean. Great start. The score wasn’t at all what we thought she would get but it was a very strong start and a massive improvement over last competition. Next was vault, her sometimes strongest event but also the one that gets in her head at times. This is the event that has caused her the most pain in training with the pain she is dealing with so it has been inconsistent at times. She had one really clean run and finished not quite as high as she has in the past but a good score.
After she went to floor. This element her coach had to make some adjustments because of the tailbone pain she is dealing with and one that she has really worked so hard on. Her floor was beautiful! One of the best she had done and she did incredible. She finished off at her nemesis (although she loves bars). This is the event I feel she has come the farthest and the one that scores frustrate her so much. She had a mostly clean run and it was one of her strongest yet. The scores reflect it for sure – she moved up strongly from her last comp and got her season’s best score on bars.
Although Emelia was disappointed in her scores today we could not have been prouder of her. She did incredible. She scored strong on her team finishing 5th out of 17 girls on the level 4 team in overall score! She of course wanted to score higher, she is harder on herself than anyone else could be. We are over the moon proud of her, she has worked so incredibly hard, she has improved so much this year and has overcome so many challenges this year to end strong.
We are so proud of you sweet girl!