Our Ballerina

A couple of months ago a friend of ours started teaching a dance class at a local recreation center. It was for girls ages 3-5 and Ava had just turned 2 1/2 but I knew she would love the class and so I asked if an exception could be made for her. I was so happy when they said she could join. And Ava LOVES the class. Every Wednesday morning when I tell her that today is her ballet class she spends the hours between 7:30, when she wakes up, and 10:00, when we leave for class, repeatedly saying, "I want to go to ballet. I want to go to ballet. I want to go to ballet." And I learned not to tell her the night before or she has a hard time going to sleep that night.

She is very, very focused in class. She never plays around or goes off to take a break and do her own thing like some of her classmates might. It's not a fun play time for her, not at all, it's ballerina training time!

From day one she has insisted on wearing one of her tutu's to class.

At home she practices (and makes me practice with her) holding onto the oven door handle as our ballet bar.

These dancing sessions with their wands have led to many lovely songs and dances from Ava at home. She twirls and sings and sways. It's often the same song that she sings while dancing, I don't know it so it must be one Cheryl plays for the class.

Learning to jump and point her toes. This is where her younger age shows, she's not the best jumper. She usually gets her feet about a half inch off the floor. :o)

Everybody following Ms. Cheryl

On their tippy toes

Watching themselves in the mirror

And WOOPS!

Ms Cheryl was showing Ava how to lift her one leg. Ava, trying to do her very best, kept holding her leg up for as long as she could after Cheryl moved on to help the other girls.

Still up. . .

Feel'n the burn . . .

Yesterday Ava taught my first ballet class (at least since I was 5). She had me sit with her on the floor and gave me a little stuffed animal like they use in their class for their stretches. We did several different stretches with her showing me how to do them and telling me, "Mama, point your toes!. Mama, do a butterfly!" Then she had me get up and hold on to the back of the couch and we practiced plie and passe. Then we did some twirling. Then we sat down for circle time and she told me a story about a bear (Cheryl usually reads them a ballet related book during the class). She was telling it in a very soft "story telling voice" so I couldn't catch as much of it as I wanted to, but it was about a bear who went up a hill, was on it's tippy toes and did some plie's and pique's. Then we did some more ballet dancing. It was the best class I've ever taken!

Ava loves Ms Cheryl!

Funny Things and Flying Kites

Flowers for Mama

Last weekend we went to Target and bought the last Disney Princess kite they had and took Ava to the park to fly a kite for the first time. She'd seen someone flying one a few weeks ago and had been wanting to fly one ever since. When we got to the park the wind was pretty strong and after watching Tony struggle a bit to control the kite we were sure Ava wouldn't really be able to fly it that day. But we let her have a go at it, fully expecting to see our $3 purchase fly off into the sun when she let go. Boy were we wrong! As you can see in the video below she hung on to that kite and kept it from crashing like a pro. And when her arms got tired she just handed it over to Tony. We might have to upgrade to an $8 kite from Costco soon . . .








I have two favorite anecdotes about Ava right now. The first happened about a couple weeks ago. Earlier that morning Ava was asking me about the spaceship in one of her puzzles and I telling her a little about space travel and that if she wanted to, she could become an astronaut and fly into space when she got older. A couple hours later Madelyn and I were in the kitchen and Madelyn was sitting her in Chicco Hook-On highchair at the island and Ava came running up to her and said, "Madelyn, you wanna go to outer 'pace? You be a baby acronaut. Yeah? Alright." And the deal was done. I still laugh at that one. Ava is always asking Madelyn questions and then answering them for her, "Yeah? Alright." I guess I must say that a lot.



And the second one happens every time I take Ava with me into a public restroom. Most recently in the bathroom at Target. I help her use the toilet and when she's finished it's my turn. After which Ava (facing me with her back to the stall door) leans forward with clasped hands and says, "Yay Mama you go pee pee! I am SO proud of you again!" HAHA! It's feels so great to be a hero to your children . . .




Oh and I guess there's three because yesterday there was a bag of raisins on the table and Ava was snagging some and I told her not too (she'd already eaten a fair share at lunch). The next time I turned around I caught her with her with one hand in the bag, but the other hand covering her eyes so that I wouldn't see her. Because everyone knows if you can't see anything other people can't see you either. Classic.




We taught Ava how to hold up two fingers and say "Peace". Only she decided that instead of two "pieces" she only wants to hold up one "piece". So every time we tell her to say "peace" she holds up her one pointer finger and says "one piece". And if I try and show her that she needs to hold up two fingers, she tells me, "No Mama, just one piece."




Last week she had her first dream that she told me about. She got up that morning and said, "The girl Mama. She go pique, pique (ballet moves) and then she go plie, plie." I asked her if the girl was in her dream while she was sleeping and she said, "Yeah, and a monkey in my bed eating a 'nana. A black monkey." The monkey in the bed is a reoccurring dream because the other night she woke up in the early morning hours crying a little. I went in and comforted her and helped her get back to sleep. The next morning I asked her is she remembered being sad in the night and what made her sad and she said, "The monkey in my bed eating a 'nana." She said he was a happy monkey so maybe she was just crying because she didn't want to share her bed . . .




Because of a game my mom played with Ava while she was here, where she'd put her face really close to Ava's and place her hands on the side of both their faces, and then tell her a story about "Grandma Bear in the cave", Ava frequently walks around the house with her eyes closed saying, "I in a cave. I in a cave." I'm sending any bills for split lips or busted heads from falling or crashing into walls while her eyes were closed to my mom.

Madleyn enjoying the warm sun at the park.

Bowling Balls and Zebras

A bit ago we went and used a Groupon to visit a local putt putt golf and game place. Ava loved playing the arcade games and even won enough tickets to win a beautiful princess crown. Well almost, she was a few short, but her Dad sweet talked the teenage guy behind the counter into giving it to her. I think it was the crown that gave her that extra edge in putt putt. She loved playing and caught onto the concept really quickly. Fun times.

The Queen of Putt Putt

Everybody need to take a break when playing such an invigorating game like golf.

Madelyn just observed.

Counting Tickets

Mama helping Ava earn some tickets by playing a little Deal or No Deal

"Strike!"

Perfect form