Shaelyn is all girl. Girly-girl. Princesses and sparkles and ballerinas and dresses. She introduces herself as "Princess Shaelyn" and "Ballerina Shaelyn." (Even when we play doctor, she's never "Doctor Shaelyn." She's "Princess Doctor.") She has memorized every song every associated with a princess, ever. She has choreographed her own moves to music from Swan Lake and The Nutcracker and Giselle.
"You'll never hear her introduce herself as 'Big-Rig-Driver Shaelyn,'" my father has observed.
So you can imagine her delight when I took her to the city ballet's open house this past weekend and signed her up for ballet classes. She got to see her classroom, filled with stuffed animals and dancing fairies and ribbons and all things this girly-girl loves.
My one worry - it is a serious ballet school and there are NO TUTUS during class and everyone has to wear the same leotard that is assigned to their class level. Shaelyn's assigned color: white. I was afraid she would be upset that she couldn't wear her pink leotard with the sparkles and her pink tutu.
On the contrary. She immediately informed me that we needed to go "get a white leotard." And when she came home, her Daddy (unknowingly) asked her if she was going to wear her tutu to class. "No, Daddy," she said, very matter-of-factly. "We don't wear tutus in class."
She was registered for a Monday afternoon class. And was told that her teacher's name was Miss Becky. This Monday was her scheduled first day. Shaelyn woke up and immediately put on her pink sparkly leotard (we didn't have her white leotard yet), her pink tutu, and asked to watch Angelina Ballerina.
About an hour later, I got a phone call from "Miss Becky." It turns out that there weren't enough students registered for the Monday class, and it was being cancelled. There were still other class time available, so I moved Shaelyn to Thursday. Miss Becky also informed me that she would like the students to call her "Mrs. Turner" instead of "Miss Becky." I got off the phone with a heavy heart, not sure how to break the news to Ballerina Shaelyn that she would not be going to class that day.
She took the news surprisingly well. The thing she was most upset about was the fact that she had to call "Miss Becky" "Mrs. Turner" instead. But we still made plans to go get her white leotard, new tights, and new shoes at the dance store that afternoon. That was enough to keep her on cloud 9 for next 3 days.
Today she went to class. She went running up to Mrs. Turner and said "Hi, Mrs. Turner! I'm Ballerina Shaelyn!" Then she pranced into the classroom, did several pirouettes, a few arabesques, and performed for the mirror.
The other little girls (4 in total) came in very tentatively, some clinging to their moms with tears, others hanging back by the wall. Shaelyn pranced and danced around the room, oblivious to them all.
45 minutes later, the girl that greeted me outside of the classroom was the happiest little girl I've ever seen. "Mommy, I got a ladybug sticker." "Mommy, we did pliés, just like you." "Mommy, we put our feet in first position, but we didn't open, close, open, close like you. Sorry!" "Mommy, we sat on the floor and put our legs out in front and pointed our toes." "Mommy, I love ballet!"
After class we went to Cracker Barrel as a family and had breakfast for dinner.
"Breakfast for dinner?! What?! That's silly!" came the response from Shaelyn. She got to wear her ballet clothes and get ohh'ed and ahh'ed at by the waitresses. She was the happiest I think I've ever seen her. So happy, that she actually asked to have a picture taken of her. With Daddy.
"CHEESE!" she declared.
My heart, which has been melting since Monday, was officially liquefied.
