The Ballerina

Lisa has been asking and asking to do ballet for some time now.  During Christmas shopping time, she marched up to me holding a leotard and tutu and said "Buy this for me so I can take ballet class."  I didn't buy the outfit (the princess already owns plenty) but I did promise to sign her up.  Maranda played a big part in this initiative.  Maranda has wanted to take hiphop for sometime and she did the legwork and found out the times and days for a ballet class for Lisa and a hiphop class for herself.   The classes are only for 5 weeks which seems the perfect amount of time to figure out if they like the classes or not. 

Lisa started yesterday.  She was so excited; she told everyone that she was going to ballet class.  When she got home from school she immediately changed into her leotard.  She was a bit perplexed when I told her she had to wait until after the big kids got home because the class didn't start until after that.  She managed to keep herself busy and took a nap waiting for her sibs to come home.  As soon as the door opened, Lisa bounded down the stairs shrieking "Mom, Mom, let's go, let's go, we have to go....they're home it's time for ballet!!!"  Needless to say, she was not happy to find out she had to wait until after dinner for the class to start.

Finally, the hour arrived.  On the way over, she asked  if I would be in the class with her.  I told her I had to wait outside.  She seemed a little worried, but I assured her she would be fine, she was a big girl and it was just like going to school.  We got to the studio and she sat patiently waiting for her class to start.

 When they opened the door, she jumped up and went right over to the room.  She handed the teacher a card she had made and entered the room all smiles.

I watched the door close and then proceeded to pop outside every few minutes to peak thru the blinds to see how Lisa was doing...yes, I'm THAT parent.  It was a wonderful moment and my heart was warmed by joy.  I kept whispering to myself, "she's doing it, she's doing it".  I know to most mothers of a 6 year old this may not seem like such a huge accomplishment.  Butttttt.....I found myself thinking back to the dance classes Lisa took when she was a toddler.  She was always developmentally behind the other kids.  She couldn't balance, couldn't climb, couldn't hang, couldn't walk on tiptoe....she would make an attempt, but mostly just walked thru the steps while the other kids jumped, twirled, and spun around.  So, to stand there and look through the window and see her point her foot, her raise on her tiptoes, twirl, do what everyone else was doing....it was wonderful.

This dancing ballerina may not have picture perfect moves, but she does have picture perfect spirit. This is the child that two months ago had so much pain she couldn't put pressure on her feet or wash her hands, this is a child who has scans lighting up all over with cancer, this is a child who is frequently taking pain pills for the aches in her legs and back.  All these things going on, and yet there she stood proud, smiling, happy to be a ballerina.  It was awesome!

Unfortunately, Maranda did not have the same awesome experience.  When we arrived for her class, we found out that she was the only one who had signed up so unless they got more students they would be cancelling the course;(   She's managed to arrange for her cousins to sign up for the class so hopefully next week she too can start dancing.

Until then, here's a little clip of the ballerina!