First – Ballet!

When I first heard about the Mommy and Me class our local ballet studio started, I was thrilled! I took ballet as a little girl, and even though it wasn’t one of the things I stuck with, I treasure the photos I have of my recitals and am convinced that – just like so many of the other opportunities Mima and Papi gave me to try new things – it developed my confidence and helped make me who I am. I want to follow their example and make sure that you have lots of opportunities to try new things so that you can discover who you are and find out what you love. It’s good to be passionate about something. I don’t know if for you that will be dance, or music, or a team sport, or art, or photography, or something else entirely. But Daddy and I want to support you on your path to discovery.

I was really proud of you. Walking into this room was overwhelming, for me as well as for you. The music was loud. The kids were running around. You were the littlest one there. And most of the parents were lined up against the wall watching rather than participating. It was intimidating. But we jumped right in. Your arms went up for me immediately and I held you through the first 5 minutes or so of the lesson while we “ran through the rain” and “jumped over puddles.” But you let me put you down with some coaxing after that. As long as you knew where I was – or more often as long as you had a death grip on my finger – you participated amazingly well for a not-even-two year old. Like I said… proud. When it got to be too much for you, you’d wander over to the mirror and duck under the bar and just watch. One of your favorite acitivities was”picking it up and putting it in your basket.” You can see in the photo below where you’re pinching something imaginary between your thumb and forefinger. After that photo, you ran over and handed it to me so that I could put it in My basket.

I was only able to take a couple photos because I was working just as hard as you running around, tip toeing and jumping. But I’m glad I got a couple to help me remember how cute you were on this momentous day.