A "Real" Ballerina

 

For at least six months, Lauren has had a dream.  To attend "ballet school" as she called it.  I feel I need to admit to a moment of motherhood failure here, because in the back of my mind, I kept thinking that it would pass.  Frankly, I believe I had been scarred for life by the one lone ballet recital that I attended BC (before children) for four sweet little girls that I used to babysit.  After enduring the hours long event in which all manner of uncoordinated children dressed up in frills and makeup with their hair pulled way too tight and their cheeks way too pink, I swore I would never again sit through one of those.  And if ever I was blessed with a daughter, she most certainly wouldn't be a dancer.

 

So as Lauren begged and pleaded for her turn to do something that she wanted to do, after hours upon hours of sitting through basketball games and soccer games and school events for Joshua, I kept thinking that if I stalled, it would pass.  But after the new year, when she looked at me so sweetly and said, "Mommy, can I pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease be a real ballerina now?" something inside of my iron-clad heart must have melted because I replied, "Of course you can."

 

And so began the search to find a ballet class for a sweet little four year old to try.  To say I was overwhelmed would be an extreme understatement.  I had absolutely no idea what I was looking at or looking for, for that matter.  When one path led me to purchase all of our necessary supplies (leotards, tights and a specific kind of ballet slipper), I thought I was on the right track, only to get a call that the class had been cancelled.  And so I put out a few feelers to clients I knew had little ballerinas of their own, and one just happened to lead me to a studio called Downtown Dance in Lewisburg, where there is a class called "Baby Ballet" on Tuesday afternoons from 3:30-4:15.

 

This is one of those times that I thank the good Lord for the flexibility of my job, although it sometimes feels like I am more of a mom than a State Farm Agent.  But after picking Joshua up from school, we all headed to Lauren's very first ballet class.  She was so adorable.  The picture I posted above was from Sunday when we did a dry run of making sure her leotard actually would fit.  She actually was dressed head to toe in pink, and was the most adorable thing I've seen in a long time.  She felt so grown up because she had some yoga pants and a little zip up sweatshirt to wear over her leotard.

 

She marched into her class like a champ, never giving a second thought to the big heavy door that would separate us while she tried something completely new.  I love how fearless she is, and how independent.  From where Joshua and I sat in the waiting room, we could overhear music from the Imagination Movers, the Fresh Beat Band and Bubble Guppies as part of their work for the day.  She was measured for her recital costume, which I am sure is going to be all kinds of sparkly sweetness.  (So much for "I'm never doing THAT again!"  She came out of her class all smiles, and asking when she could go back again.  Good thing for her, the teacher, Miss Christine, said she did just fine and would make a great addition to the class.

 

A real ballerina she is.