Our Little Dancer

Nicole's life is finally complete. She got to start dance lessons this fall!  And it is everything she hoped it would be. 

I must admit, I have enjoyed it almost as much as she has.  The first several times we went, I literally could not stop smiling.  She was on cloud nine, leaping and dancing and playing games and dressing up in fairy wings. Now Nicole's life revolves around Tuesday afternoons. We have to drag Josh and Greg along with us too, but they actually like watching the class.  Greg even surprised us a few weeks ago at home when he spontaneously started doing Nicole's dance moves with her. He knew a lot of the routine and she was delighted to have a dance buddy while she practiced.

I'm pretty impressed by Nicole's balance and it seems like she gets stronger every week.  She's really good at following instructions down to the smallest detail. I was a little worried that she'd be blessed with my lack of grace, but she has easily proven herself as a beginning dancer. Ballet is her favorite genre so far. 

The time finally came for Nicole's first performance, which was at The Festival of Trees. As we were getting her dressed up she said, "I've been waiting for this my whole life!"  She was completely confident and smiled the whole time, soaking up the attention. (I guess we forgot to tell her that she should be nervous.)  A few weeks later she performed at the dance studio's recital, this time on a real stage.  She was so cute and I noticed that she was leading the other girls on a lot of the moves.  We sure are proud of Nicole and all that she's learned.  And most importantly, we love to see her so happy. She dances because it's fun.

 Below is the link to watch the video of Nicole's recital song. It's about 2 minutes.  I couldn't zoom with my camera so if you can't tell, she's the fourth one from the right. Super cute!  The second video is of her gymnastics routine. They performed it at the same recital, and again she starts out fourth from the right.  Partway through she moves to fifth place, but she's the only girl with bouncy brown hair and a pink bow so it's not hard to keep up. They show off some pretty neat tricks. Enjoy!

(Note: If you're watching it on the actual blog, you'll want to click to enlarge or you'll only get half the screen. You should be able to see the full stage with curtains on both sides.)


DANCE:  "Like a Rock Star"



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_5yKZ9hZfc



GYMNASTICS: "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNIVPS0xZu8