When we came home from shopping for her ballet clothes and I told her that yes, she could put on the froufy pink tutu we bought for her. She saw it almost immediately when we entered the store, and while it’s not really appropriate attire for her class, she really, really wanted it, and I figured it would be good for at-home play.
Readers who have been around a while may remember the purple tutu dress she wore pretty much all day every day last winter. It finally bit the dust this spring after a few too many potty accidents in it. And she had pretty much worn the thing out – I had resewn various parts of it several times. Joe’s mom had bought it for her, and she grilled me about it the last time she was over here babysitting the kids. I explained truthfully, but between the language barrier and lack of trust, I’m still not sure whether she understands and/or believes me. She’s planning on getting Julie some kind of replacement for her birthday in a few weeks, but I sort of figure the more of these play clothes the better for sharing with friends and sisters.
I need to dig out the other play clothes that I put away months ago when we were struggling with getting Julie to pick up after herself. We still struggle with that, but it’s time for some of those things to come back out into the rotation.
But back to ballet. I went ahead and signed Julie up for those lessons, and I think I am almost excited (and nervous) about them as she is. Yes, I will be living vicariously through my four-year-old to some extent, but only as long as she enjoys it. I paid for the whole year of lessons up front, including the shoes, costume and recital fees – all adding up to just over
Also, we signed Sophie up for ECFE classes, which is another, if smaller, chunk of change. But we did those classes with Julie from even earlier on, and they were great. Sophie needs a little more socialization with people her own age, and it’s good to have an outlet for meeting other moms and getting advice. I may even look into a music class for Sophie if I can find one on another morning while Julie is in school. Sophie loves to dance. I have a video I took last week that I keep meaning to put up on You-Tube…
Whew! I just had to share all that. I have another post in my head waiting to get typed out as well. I meant to put it up last night, but didn’t have time after my knitting class and some other household business that had to be taken care of. It involves a finished object, and it’s probably not the finished object you would be expecting if you’re keeping score at home.
You could be on one of those credit card commercials – you know, the ones where they end with something like “A happy prima ballerina: priceless”. (Do they run those commercials all over, or is it just here, and you have no idea what I’m babbling about?) Anyway, that picture of Julie truly IS priceless.
between the language barrier and lack of trust
I laughed out loud on that one. My MIL is Hungarian. Despite the fact that she has been in the U.S. for over 30 years, we *still* have a difficut time having any sort of real conversation… so I feel for you. And I have known her for 20 of those 30 yrs. BTW My mom has been in the States for 40 years and you can’t even tell… and I am bi-lingual… so I have nothing against people coming to the U.S…. just please learn the language… it benefits all. It breaks my heart to so the bare bones relationship she has with my kids because she dismissed learning English… oh well…
Will Julie have a recital at the end of the year? Those are a blast. She looks beautiful!!! Have fun!!
Share away! I am always excited to see when you have posted! Julie looks great in her tutu, I always loved having cool dress up clothes when I was a kid. Show your MIL all the pictures you have of Julie in the one she gave her!
So YOU’RE my real mom!
I always wanted ballet lessons, but my mother was always off doing something else.
The other day my boyfriend and I were talking at the dinner table, and he said “You know, maybe I should get my MBA.” I said “Well, I always wanted to be a ballerina.”
He was silent for a second (I suppose wondering where his history major and pudgy girlfriend got this from) and then said “Uhm.. maybe you should get a different goal.”
Julie looks so happy. My daughter took dance classes until 4th grade then switched to softball. Loved watching the little girls in the recital. Way to go Shelly, you are a great mom. Sorry about the MIL situation.
Good for you for signing her up for classes. I just registered Lucy, my older daughter, for dance classes as well. I’m a little concerned. The girl has a perfectionist streak in her, so I hope she doesn’t suddenly decide that the dance she’s taught is “right” and all the freeform lovely dance she’s been doing the past six years of her life is somehow wrong. I also made sure that she doesn’t have to commit for a whole year if it doesn’t work out. I don’t want to force her to keep going even if she doens’t like it and then be afraid to try something else new because she’d be committed to it even if it were no fun. Gahh. I worry about this stuff too much. So after talking those issues over with her, we went on Tuesday and signed up. Now that it’s decided, I’m starting to enjoy the anticipation. And damn if they aren’t cute in those little dance costumes.
Just a tip: They usually professionally videotape the recital and take orders for the recording. They were worth ordering because my daughter loved watching the video of the whole recital. She never really got to see most of the other dances because she spent so much time backstage waiting for her classes’ turn to do their number. However, the camera-person usually is zoomed out to get the whole class performing — so your kid is a pretty small speck on the screen. I found it really worthwhile to bring my own camcorder to the dress rehearsal and film my daughter’s dress rehearsal numbers. You can stand right at the first row of seats, zoom in on your own kid and get the costume, the music, everything – up close and personal.
My MIL lived too far away to attend the recitals and was thrilled every year to get my recording of my daughter’s dress rehearsals.