Like mother, like daughter? Shawn Johnson East has a lot of cute photos of her daughter, Drew, flooding her social media accounts — including one snap that made the athlete realize her little one might be too young to be a gymnast right now.
During a game of Us Weekly’s “I Can Explain,” the Olympian, 28, and her husband, Andrew East, revealed some of the stories behind their most adorable photos with their 13-month-old daughter. Shawn, for her part, recalled the moment she became a stage mom and why she panicked at the idea of Drew on a high beam.
“Oh geez, I can’t remember how old she was there,” the gold medalist exclusively told Us, referencing a photo of Drew in a leotard on the balance beam. “It was the first time I took her to a gymnastics gym. I was really excited to take her to gymnastics gym, thinking it was going to be, like, this monumental thing.”
Shawn explained that although Drew was fine at the gym, she freaked out.
“As soon as we got there, I got weirded out. I was like, ‘I’m a stage mom. I’m, like, forcing my 6-month old daughter to do what I did,’” she said. “Andrew can tell you, we were there for maybe 10 minutes and I was like, ‘We have to go. We have to go.’”
The couple, who welcomed Drew in November 2019, also took a trip down memory lane during the game with a photo from one of the family’s first vacations.
“That was our first trip with her [or] second trip. She was like 3 months old,” Shawn said, looking at the snap of her and Drew playing in the sand. “I flipped her in the sand, oh, and the internet broke about it.”
The Winning Balance author noted that some trolls accused her of “child abuse,” but she pointed out that she was “very careful” during the spin.
“I know what I’m doing. And I think she really enjoyed it,” Shawn told Us.
The former NFL player, 29, also weighed in on his favorite family photo with his girls, which was when the trio dressed up as cowboys while on the hunt for a Halloween costume.
“I love that picture,” Andrew told Us. “We’re big fans of Yellowstone, the TV series. And so, we wanted to try to get matching costumes for that and we found a little — is it Jessie from Toy Story? It was the perfect costume for Drew. She has this horse toy. So, we tried our best to be cowboy and cowgirl.”
The couple, who exclusively told Us earlier this month that they are ready to expand their family, dished about a few other precious snaps with Drew during the game. To see what they had to say about Drew’s obsession with water and the first time she tried to kiss Shawn, check out the exclusive Us Weekly clip above.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
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