Ballerina in Training

Last Tuesday Kaiya's Ballet Teacher had a little "mini recital" during the last 15 minutes of class to show the families what the girls had learned so far this year.

Kaiya absolutely loves ballet and looks forward to going every week. Ballet has been such a wonderful activity for her, since it's the only thing Kaiya does where she's willing to step out of her comfort zone. Every week I'm just so proud of Kaiya because I know it's so hard for her to do all of those things in public with people looking at her.

I wasn't quite sure though how she'd react to the little "mini recital" and having a big crowd watching her. She did great!




Kaiya was willing to do all the group stuff together, but when it came time to go across the room by herself, she wasn't having it at all.


Once they started doing things as a group again, she was back to her usual self.


After the girls finished showing all their parents the things they learned, it was time to go. Kaiya sat there on the floor looking all sad and wouldn't look up at us. Right then I just wanted to bawl inside because I know she thought she disappointed us by not going across the floor by herself and I also think she probably felt like she let herself down a little too because she prides herself on doing a good job at ballet class. Of course, we weren't disappointed in the least, but my heart just ached for her, and it was so important that we make her feel so much better.

I went up to her with a huge smile, gave her a big hug, and told her how proud we were of her. Then we proceeded to tell her our favorite parts like, "I loved your plies and how you worked so hard to get your arms in the right positions. You had such graceful ballerina arms." "We all liked it when you did your turns. Chloe especially liked that part because she got her flutter fingers and got all excited." Carson even praised her {which made Kaiya just beam because apparently praise from your older brother is even better than praise from your parents} and said, "I liked it when you danced around with your wand." By the time we left, Kaiya was all smiles again {Thank goodness!} and was talking about how she couldn't wait to come back for the next class in January!