Ballet and Tap Class

Today was the first ballet and tap class for Kaylen. This day has been months and months in the waiting and all morning I heard "Is it time, yet?" "Can we go now?" Finally - it was time. We drove the 15 minutes to the neighboring town to the only place around who will teach there year olds. We walked up to the door and Kaylen excitedly jabbered on and on and on. We meet her teacher and... for some reason she melted into a puddle of hysteria. Oh the tears! I carried her back to the room talking softly about "let's just go see the room" and "I think you're going to like it once you see the other little girls here" and anything else I could think of to keep her sheer panic in check. I could see the $58 tuition fee flying up, up and away and I so didn't want her to fail herself. I couldn't help but feel her pain though. We were the first ones there so I held her and walked around the room, talking about everything I saw. Finally she raised her wet little face off my shoulder to look. Others started to arrive and most of them were saying things like "I don't want to do this." "Let's go home." and other things of the like. Kaylen started to sob again begging me to take her home. I stood my ground for a few minutes and tried to talk her into her ballet shoes. The teacher came over and asked her what color tu-tu she would like but Kaylen buried herself further into me and kept repeating "I want to go home! Please!" Her teacher said "You know, if she would like she could just watch today while she sits on your lap." Kaylen's head tentatively raised an inch or so. I asked if she would like that and she nodded yes. Then she choose the purple tu-tu.

She hated her ballet shoes. Which is odd since she has gone through three pair exactly like them at home. I put my hand in them though to find that along the stitching there were hard places that poked my hand. Great. There goes another $18. I'd have to try to fix them to her satisfaction later. I let her go without shoes. We went up to the front of the room where the other little girls on the verge of breakdowns were sitting on laps in the circle and we joined. Little by little she started joining in for the warm ups. Slowly I backed up until I was a good two feet away. Other mothers were doing the same with their daughters. Kaylen remained hesitant but I quietly cheered her on and before long, she was participating and having fun! I was so happy I could have cried! Then out came the tap shoes. She happily put her pair on and all the girls noisily traipsed around the room. Oh my goodness - far and away the 15 minutes of tap was my favorite part! The girls were so happy to be making noise and Kaylen was animated and happy. I took some photos though they aren't very good. But seriously? Isn't she just the cutest? :)