Dancer Girl

My darling Laura started dance class yesterday. She has been looking forward to it for weeks and woke up just squealing with excitement about dance class. It was a wonderful morning of preparation. I fixed her tap shoes with elastic so she could pull them on by herself. Then we practiced the important things of putting on her ballet and tap shoes as well as learning how to go to the bathroom while wearing a leotard. We did her hair and packed her bag and Laura just jumped in excitement. All the shopping (pink bag, tap and ballet shoes, leotard and tights) for dance class was done more than a week ago and that was also very exciting.

Seeing her this way got me totally nostalgic and emotional. First of all, I can't believe I have a child old enough to be taking classes like this; it seems like it was just the other day that I was the one in the leotard heading off to dance. Second, she was so stinking cute it about killed me. Third, it reminds me how much I love dance and something in my soul misses that (though, you couldn't pay me enough to get me in a leotard right now). Finally, to drop her off and see her independence (exactly what I want for her, but difficult nonetheless) as she ran into class, chatted with her teacher--"Hi, my name is Laura, L-A-U-R-A, and my favorite color is pink"--and then said "See ya, Mom" and waved me off, just made me think of her as a little tiny thing in my arms and how short that time really is.

I think she really enjoyed the class and will be bummed when fall starts and it changes from camp format (2.5 hours with tap, ballet, creative, crafts and snacks) to just a short class. Well, we'll both enjoy the long time while it lasts for these three weeks.