Dance Rehearsal

My 6 year old daughter E has been taking a bunch of different dance classes. She loves the performances they put on because she likes to be on stage, but she started to get nervous before them over the last year. This year in particular, she was in two separate performances and felt some butterflies leading up to the rehearsal.

Now I usually take E to most of her dance sessions. I love doing that because I get a chance to watch her have a lot of fun. I also love watching her improve slowly week after week. If she feels nervous or needs advice, I’m usually there to give it, but the dress rehearsal was different. I didn’t know how to make sure her hair and makeup were perfect, so my wife needed to be the one to bring her (and I was home with the baby and our 4 year old son C).

E was definitely feeling very nervous according to my wife, but apparently when she saw her dance friends, she said goodbye and just left in a very happy mood. That made be relieved and maybe E was feeling anxious to get things started instead of feeling nervous. Either way, she’s growing up so fast and the fact that she is exhibiting teenage behavior by jettisoning her Mommy makes me want to slow things down some more so I can really appreciate these times. It’s hard to enjoy things when it’s one thing after another with kids, but if we don’t slow things down and stay present, it’ll all pass in a blink.