Adelina Ballerina

Addie LOVES to dance. She's been a dancer since a very young age and as many of you know, we have a dance party every night after dinner and she dances a lot through the day as well. This summer she did a short Saturday morning dance class at a nearby elementary school and she LOVED it. I mean...LOVED IT. So we decided to sign her up for an official ballet class because she shows signs of way more grace than either of her parents (sorry Stevo, it's true, better accept it now). We're not trying to early-breed a career ballerina, to be honest I'm hesitant to even start her on this path because it's a discipline that is very dependent on body structure and I don't want Addie to ever feel pressure in that sense. But, she loves to dance, and a tot class can't hurt--she'll also do soccer and tennis and other fun stuff and she can choose for herself what to pursue in the future!

It's through our county and takes place at a community center, nothing fancy, right? But the community registration book said leotard, tights, and ballet slippers REQUIRED. OOh la la. So we bought the appropriate gear and one afternoon while I was putting Cole up for a nap, Steve got Addie all dressed up and I came down the stairs and saw her dressed up like this and tears sprang to my eyes immediately. She looks so grown up!!!




She asked Steve to be the ballet teacher so he took her through some of the moves that HE learned in her dance class


Look how serious she is!

And yesterday was the first day of the official class! We got there on the early side and Addie and another little girl thought the mirror was really cool.


Addie does this hilarious dance she called "ballerina bear" Steve has a video on his phone that I'm going to try and plug at the end of this blog post, but in the meanwhile, he's a still version of ballerina bear


Her teacher is from Haiti so is a native French speaker and told us that by the end of the 8-weeks, she won't speak to them in English, only French and she switched back and forth the whole time! How cool is that?

We were allowed in the first class, but not again until the end and she told us we could take pictures, so I started snapping away during stretches.


Here the teacher is telling Addie to point her toes

Look how she keeps them pointed! Such a dancer already ;) Wow, I can see how moms get way too involved in their kids' activities...it's addictive!

Here Ms. Sabine was saying "pretend to sleep" and Addie has her eyes shut tight.

Here Ms. Sabine said "lean down to kiss the floor" and a second later realized that Addie took her seriously and told the kids "wait, don't actually KISS the floor" :)

Waiting her turn to be put into position


My mom always told me that I was way more interested in what other kids were doing than my own work in school. Addie definitely has a bit of that--she was always watching the other kids before she watched the teacher
Addie LOVED the pirouettes


I love how her toe is pointed here. So graceful!

Ms Sabine moved me out of my corner and told the girls to come one at a time out of the corner doing sashay's (or whatever the french version is called)

But all the girls ran out at pretty much the same time :)

All in all it was a great class. The teacher and three of the parents complimented Addie on how well she listened. AND the teacher asked me if we speak french at home when Addie responded to her "au revoir" with an au revoir and I proudly said "nope, but I hope she learns!"

We went to the playground afterward and Addie pushed Cole on the swing, which he loved.

When did this girl grow up??? She's almost 3!!

So we'll see how next Monday goes when I wont be there in class. Addie had her 3rd day of pre-school yesterday and she had a drop-off meltdown for the first time and they called us after she didn't stop crying after an hour :( Tomorrow is another class, so cross your fingers that yesterday was a fluke!!

And here's ballerina bear: