Stink

Salem had her first day at gymnastics yesterday. I wanted to keep her in swim practice but the weather is unusually cold as of late. The thought of my skinny little waif of a kid having to get wet, even in the inside pool, left much to be desired.

She's never done any kind of gymnastics before, but she fit right in, tumbling around like a pro. Much to my surprise, she handled the balance beam well. I say I'm surprised as she has had quite a bit of difficulty with maintaining balance on her scooter. It's almost painful to watch her stumbling around like a sailor on leave while she attempts to ride it.

The class was made up of a dozen girls and one little boy. Being a mother of an only child and that child being a girl, I have had minor exposure to little boys. This particular little boy was so crazy and hyper I almost got involved in trying to restrain him. He was hopping on one foot while swinging his arms at the girls, striking any pink leotard covered kindergartner in his path. He pushed the girls, pulled their hair, went out of turn, poked and deliberately tripped them while they tried to perform forward rolls and cartwheels. I watched Salem carefully avoid this nuisance for most of the class. Then I watched him approach her to say something. She turned and marched directly toward me.

"Mom! That little boy, the little boy over there, do you see him?"
me: "Yes. What's going on?"
her: "Well, he's been misbehaving all class long. And he just called me stink!"
me: "Stink? That's all he could come up with?"

Her eyes narrowed, her mouth squished into a smug little pinch and she turned and marched right back to that kid. From what I could tell from across the room, she had a small little meeting with the brat-boy. He clumsily  swung around on his heel and wandered off to be annoying in another location of the gym. Later, after class I asked her what happened:

"I told him that "stink" is not what I want to be called. My name is Salem, not stink. If he wants to be my friend he'll have to come up with a better nick name or just call me by my real name. Stink. Now that's just stupid."