On the inside : Cheer Competiton

Motherhood comes in many different forms of love. One of those loving moments for me was Kylie Jade's recent cheerleading competition. If you know me cheer has never really been my thing and I swore I would never have an athletic cheerer. Anyone who knows me knows I lacked school pep and couldn't care less about sports in general.

I enrolled Kylie Jade into gymnastics when she was a small, potty trained, 2 year old. She has always been super active and socially mature so I figured gymnastics would be a great fit for her. Dance took too much time to learn the routine, but gym was the perfect fit for her. As she learned to flip over bars before she was 3 we found that her interest has doubled. Gymnastics was her thing and once you are in gymnastics you turn to cheering.

My 5 year old daughter expressed in interest and cheer and I was hesitant. I am not big on cheering myself, but if she wanted to do it I would let her try. No harm right? Yea no harm except on my bank account...

As she began into the cheering world we realized quickly that back hand springs, and tucks were going to be a must. I, sadly, took her out of gymnastics and enrolled her into tumbling. Boy has she flourished. She has picked up back hand springs in around 7 months time and while they are not perfect they are coming along quite nice. Along with tumbling she decided she really wanted to do Rec cheerleading so off into the world of the Ringgold Tigers we went.

The first few weeks she didn't really care for it. She wanted to do more tumbling and less cheering. I figured that would happen she loves to cartwheel, and somersault away. As we broke off into groups we found that Kylie Jade was enjoying it more. The cheers were louder, her confidence soared and she was so excited to cheer on the boys.

Monday was her first cheerleading competition ever. I entered in horror as pink shirts, pink hair bows, and preppy made up faces chattered around me. Kylie Jade's eyes were lit up and she was in aw. She went right to her group and was hanging with her cheer friends. She was so excited they picked her to get to cartwheel in front of everyone. I was just sick to my stomach. I kept silently praying she wouldn't fall, she wouldn't get hurt. As they came out for the cheer portion her hands were on her hips and her smile lit up the room. "Are you ready?" "OKAY!" The girls shouted. As they began their 1,2,3,4,5 routine. Kylie Jade spoke clearly and sweetly. The smile never left her face. The crowd all cheered once they left. Next was the dance portion. I was a nervous wreck because I knew she would cry if she fell. She didn't she did fantastic. The girls were all smiling and held their own up there! She nailed her cartwheels and everyone cheered for them. They announced the winners and the girls won their CHEER and ROUTINE! They were so excited and Kylie Jade was on a winning streak high. I gotta say she is amazing. I was so proud of her and happy she was able to show off how sassy, and full of life she is. She told me in the car on the way home that "cheering is definitely my thing!" Looks like more cheer competitions are in our near future!

I gotta say those group of cheer girls are amazing! Our coaches were awesome and all those practices paid off! Congrats Ringgold Tigers team 2 YOU DID IT!