As you know, we have two little ballerinas in this family. Usually Ella is the happy cooperative dancer. She is excited to be at class, she participates and listens to directions. But a few weeks ago, she had one of her quarterly meltdowns. I got a series of notes, dramatically handed to me between door slams and screams into pillows.
Ella hates dance class. (Please note the sweet little dancer at the bottom who has been vehemently crossed out. HATE.)
She hates dance class and she HATES GOING TO DANCE CLASS. Add heart. Cross heart out.
Also, Dance Class is Stupid. (Yes, she used the "s" word. Strongly worded letters, I know.)
But here's the real problem.
I know, sweetie. Sometimes I'm just not having a good day either.
After a discussion (you know, once the door slams and pillow screams died out), I found out her day was ruined when her table mate wouldn't share her peach crayon at school. Ella NEEDS peach to draw the skin tone. Brown just wouldn't work for this picture. I can understand that. But Izzy couldn't. I'm not sure if you know this, but sometimes people make decisions that may hurt your feelings. But writing notes is a good way to get those feelings out. And really, Ella will be too self aware for me to share stuff like this for much longer, so I'm going to enjoy exploiting her angry notes for our entertainment while I can.
Luckily Ella recovered from her HATE of Dance Class in time to make it for the last practice before the recital. I went into the whole Dance Recital experience assuming Gretchen wouldn't really participate. And yes, she lived up to my expectations.
EXPECTATIONS:
Gretchen will look SUPER CUTE, and be SUPER EXCITED about her costume, but she will not dance.
Ella did fantastic! Smiled & did all the steps. Good job! (She's smack dab in the middle, the tall one.)
Gretchen looked cute.
The thing is, Gretchen loves making people laugh & being the center of attention. BUT ONLY ON HER TERMS. Friday, I took Gretchen with me to volunteer in Ella's class. Usually the last hour of Friday afternoon is spent watching science videos until it slowly degrades to dancing cat videos on youtube (it's pretty cute, all the kids get up & dance along. Besides, their test scores are fantastic, so I thoroughly approve.) I wasn't too worried about Gretchen being a distraction. How can you be a distraction from dancing cat videos? Oh, I'll tell you. You can lift your shirt over your head, spit through it, and do a crazy dance. I finally posted her on top of the cubbies, where she could no longer dramatically fall out of her chair or sit on anyone. She lost her "Happy Meal" privileges and ended up eating a hamburger with a cup of water for our special Girls-Weekend-McDonalds-Dinner. (I'm so mean, I know.) Nothing would get through to her! I'd taker her for time-out in the hall, and as soon as we stepped back inside, kids would say "There's Gretchen!!!" and it would begin all over again. (Maybe next time I need to put her in her dance outfit and tell her she'll be performing for the kids. That'll stop her!) As soon as all the kids left for the day, she promptly grabbed a book and started quietly reading to herself. ARGH!!!!
And in zombie uprising news... Gretchen saw a big van for Green Thumb Lawn care next to us (the logo was a hand with a green thumb). She wanted to know why there was a zombie finger on the truck. She is REALLY into zombies lately. Maybe because their favorite grown-up-book to look at is Pride & Prejudice & Zombies (they like the pictures).
So how was your week?
3 comments:
Awwwww. Lucky! Little ballerinas are my favorite. (is that a weird sentence to write?) Just so CUTE!
did you start to fall asleep during the 2nd video? I only ask because I always fall asleep when a rooms lights go down and the camera tilt kinda seems like it.
It's relly great tht she didn't give up. Many adults would actualy leave dance class or any other when they loose their interest in it or they have too much on their plates but as mentioned at customwritingcompany.com they'll definitely regret it later if they didn't think carefully before making the decision. And I do hope Ella still has the same passion about dancing as she had in that video.
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