Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Dance, Baby, Dance

Today I took Chase to a trial ballet/tap class.

They let us borrow a pair of tap and ballet shoes (but she wouldn't put them on). There were little girls in tutus everywhere. One girl had glitter in her hair. Some were doing twirls in the waiting room. Others were tapping their toes. It was all super duper girlie cute.

I didn't know I was going to have to leave her there - alone. Okay, not really alone. She was with the rest of the kids and the instructor.

She cried when I left and it just made me want to grab her up from the teacher and run away with her. But instead I stayed strong, thinking - if she can get through this class, I might just have one hour to myself. WHOA.

There was a place where I could peak in to see her. The instructor carried her for the first 10 minutes. Ten minutes later, she was standing at the bar with the other girls. Tapping her toes. And so I went to get a coffee.

The hour passed pretty quickly, and when I returned (10 minutes before class was out) she still seemed to be hanging in there. When the doors opened and she (and the rest of the class) was allowed out of the studio, her bottom lip was quivering (poor darling). But she held it together. She showed me two stamps she received - one was for tap, the other was for ballet.

She pointed to the door and said, "go dogs go." But later, when we were in the car and I asked her, did you like dance class? She said, "yes." And I said, "do you want to go back?" And she said, "Yes."