WOW! We made it! In many ways this was quite an accomplishment!
Kelsey spent about 2/3 of the year crying at dance. For those of you who know me, you understand that she is her Mommy's child! ;-) While most parents would have pulled their daughter our, with the help of the teachers and the support of some of the other dance moms, I chose to persevere and keep her in. Kelsey was a unique case in that she would cry at dance, yet she danced! She didn't ball up in the corner and cry, she stood in her spot, cried and danced! The teacher said she had never seen anything like her. (The teacher in me wonders what to think of that...only time will tell.) At Christmas, she clearly knew her bunny dance and it was obvious by the smile on her face that she loved learning ballet. So we continued on. At some point, we finally overcame the tears and Kelsey started asking me, is it time to go to dance! Alleluia! The closer it came to the recital, the more excited she was to dance on the "big stage"! It was interesting trying to teach her about performing knowing that she was unaware of what it means to be embarrassed or nervous.
This dance mom was in a complete haze as to all that would go into dancing on the big stage! About 5 weeks ago we got a very lengthy packet on the dos and don'ts of the recital. WOW! Makeup, flowers, hair buns...OH MY! It was clear that I had a lot to learn and understandable why parents choose to never put their children in dance! Thankfully, I have made some wonderful friends through dance and together we were all able to transform our daughters into the most precious flowers ever seen! As some of you know, Kelsey at times can be quite uncooperative (this of course comes from her Daddy)! So we had a lot of practice runs, tights, hair, makeup! Within no time I turned my 3 year old into a professional diva, no doubt I will be paying for this in the weeks and months to come! There is no doubt in my mind that I will forever be vacuuming up body glitter from every inch of my house!
The dress rehearsal and recital were as magical as you might be imagining! Kelsey danced her little heart out and was so proud of herself. Most importantly she had a ton of fun! Of course I have taken a million pictures and posted just a small sampling here. Pictures and video could not be taken the night of the recital, so the video posted was from the dress rehearsal and yes that is a professional photographer interrupting the end, who coincidentally is my neighbor, will have to walk down and chat with him ;-)!
Oh and to the parent who on the second day of ballet, walked passed me as I was trying to rip my crying child off of my leg and said, "I'm glad that's not my child!" "BI#$ Me!" ;-)
