My not-so little Ballerina

When I was a little girl, I longed to be one of those beautiful, graceful and confident girls who danced. Instead, I was a chunky klutzy girl who played piano and read a lot. My mom never had the desire to put me in dance lessons, but I wasn't cut out for it anyways; lucky for me, my husband shares my abhorrence for dancing and shaming ourselves in public and we refuse to even get up for one dance at weddings and parties.

So after excessive complaining on Laina's part about her sore legs and ankles after short walks, I took her to the doctor who told me that she has fallen arches and inverted ankles. He suggested I put her in ballet as it would help to strengthen her arches and somewhat correct her problems with her ankles. I was excited to think of my little girl learning to dance; you know how it is... you get to try and relive your childhood dreams through your children right? Laina is in her third year of ballet now, and she has since taken up jazz as well. Next year she may even branch out and try something new. She adores dancing and I never hear a complaint about her sore legs and ankles anymore.

The amusing thing about the pictures that I took tonight are that she was doing it all wrong... they were learning something new and it was taking awhile for her to catch on. I love my girls to bits, but I am not one of those moms that thinks everything their child does is all rainbows and unicorns. So while this might sound mean, I was actually snickering a bit to myself behind my camera because Laina looked like she was trying to leap in the air and kick herself in the butt while lots of the other girls looked graceful and elegant. But she works hard in class and she will get it (with a little help from her wonderful teacher)!

Evelyn escaped and tried to crash the class here...