Annie did spectacularly well at her dance recital on Saturday. When we got there, the auditorium was a total zoo (just like the last two recitals): parents with cameras milling everywhere, tiny dancers prancing around and finding their seats, and at least one three-year-old crying on a mommy's shoulder because of the chaos. As we sat in our seats with both sets of grandparents waiting for it all to begin, I got more and more nervous. I kept standing up and contorting my body around to peek at Annie, seated in the back with her class. She'd smile, wave, and bounce around on her seat next to her friend Kate. Not nervous AT ALL.
When it was their turn, she was all concentration and seriousness, tapping earnestly and following Miss Amy before throwing her Santa hat up in the air at the end, on cue. I snuck down to the front row to snap some pictures while she was dancing; she noticed me a few seconds into the song and threw me an embarrassed half-smile, like, MOM, what are you doing there? Can't you see I'm busy DANCING? So cute. So proud. We celebrated by going home, getting burgers from Wealthy Station, and eating in the living room while watching the video of her performance.
On Sunday, Jason's parents took her to see the Nutcracker at DeVos. In preparation for this big event, Jason's mom had sent Annie the book a couple weeks ago so she'd know the story when she was watching the ballet onstage. Unfortunately, the book had a couple very creative, graphic illustrations of The Evil Seven-Headed Rat King, so after the first reading of it, where I tried to gloss over any scariness, Annie's response to me asking, "Want to read The Nutcracker tonight?" was "NOOOOOOOOO THERE'S A SCARY RAT BUNNY IN THAT BOOK!!!!" We were unsure about how she'd do when Scary Rat Bunny was dancing right in front of her. She did great. She was in love with the various princesses and queens and fairy-types. She asked tons of questions about the orchestra. And at one point, when the brother and sister fought over the nutcracker and the brother broke it, the brother went off stage. Annie turned to her grandma and said, "Grandma, where did Frederick go? Is he in a time-out?"
So, my tiny dancer, my little ballerina, when you came up to me at the end of that weekend, asked for a hug, and said, "Mommy, want to squeeze my guts out?" the answer is yes, of course I do.
When it was their turn, she was all concentration and seriousness, tapping earnestly and following Miss Amy before throwing her Santa hat up in the air at the end, on cue. I snuck down to the front row to snap some pictures while she was dancing; she noticed me a few seconds into the song and threw me an embarrassed half-smile, like, MOM, what are you doing there? Can't you see I'm busy DANCING? So cute. So proud. We celebrated by going home, getting burgers from Wealthy Station, and eating in the living room while watching the video of her performance.
On Sunday, Jason's parents took her to see the Nutcracker at DeVos. In preparation for this big event, Jason's mom had sent Annie the book a couple weeks ago so she'd know the story when she was watching the ballet onstage. Unfortunately, the book had a couple very creative, graphic illustrations of The Evil Seven-Headed Rat King, so after the first reading of it, where I tried to gloss over any scariness, Annie's response to me asking, "Want to read The Nutcracker tonight?" was "NOOOOOOOOO THERE'S A SCARY RAT BUNNY IN THAT BOOK!!!!" We were unsure about how she'd do when Scary Rat Bunny was dancing right in front of her. She did great. She was in love with the various princesses and queens and fairy-types. She asked tons of questions about the orchestra. And at one point, when the brother and sister fought over the nutcracker and the brother broke it, the brother went off stage. Annie turned to her grandma and said, "Grandma, where did Frederick go? Is he in a time-out?"
So, my tiny dancer, my little ballerina, when you came up to me at the end of that weekend, asked for a hug, and said, "Mommy, want to squeeze my guts out?" the answer is yes, of course I do.
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