Ballet Class

This past Monday was Sis' last dance class of the term. Parents had been banned from the classes, if you'll remember, but on this, the last day, we all got to sit quietly on the bench and watch our little ballerinas.
They were adorable! Very serious as they ran and jumped and slipped and slid all over the room. At one point, they were all sitting on their bottoms and spinning in circles. Now, I've never taken ballet or dance of any sort. Those of you that have, what move is that exactly? :)
Here she is rolling on the floor. Um, not sure of that move either. They had a blast making up their own moves to a diverse selection of music. They clearly adored their teacher who was fun but kept all the little muchkins well in line.
At the end of class, I bribed Sis to go back to the bar and do a little this and that so I could take pictures. So cute. I seriously considered joining an adult class. I'm not sure they have classes elementary enough for me . . . I mean, I can sit and spin or roll with the best preschoolers. Anything much more than that, and I may do myself injury.
I've been suggesting, hinting, begging my similarly dance-inhibited spouse to take lessons with me for years. Perhaps his refusal is my saving grace. Neither of us have done much more than a little boogie when no one is watching. We'd likely tangle ourselves up in a knot, impede the learning progress of our classmates and cause our teacher to kindly suggest private lessons. I'm just saying . . . it could be that bad.

My little girl will not suffer the same inhibition. She wiggles and dances with the best of them. And to be honest, I rock out with her when nobody is looking;)

Halloween

After a week of illness and the like, Halloween snuck up on our family . . . Little Sis had a costume, had one for several weeks in fact. And lest you think this is a sign of favoritism, it was simply her dance leotard plus a borrowed pair of wings and her rain boots. Nothing fancy, folks. Certainly nothing I'd go out and buy! But Big D had been neglected. We don't go in for all the supernatural dark stuff of Halloween -- so no vampires, witches, ghosts or ghouls. Ends up being kinda limiting, really. As you can see, we opted for a brown paper bag, some pipe cleaners, construction paper and tape. Do I totally suck? I think its kinda cute. 
Clearly the more energetic of my children was the one in the pink number. She raced back and forth across our porch, demonstrated some "dance" moves from ballet. I've never taken ballet but I'm thinking her moves are uniquely her own:) 

Lots of jumping, leaping and hip waggling. I'm not sure how we'd classify her costume -- part super hero, part fairy and part hip hop ballet dancer. The rain boots just kill me. 
We hit a hand full of houses before retiring home to mind our own front door. Kids were over the moon with excitement -- the candy, oh my. I really appreciated that some of our neighbors gave stickers and crayons rather than the traditional sugar high. Nice thinking! There were two families that attempted to make an Avon or Party Lite connection by passing out catalogues. Um, interesting. 
All in all, a nice evening. Nice to see entire families in the streets, laughing, talking and getting to know each other. I may not be keen on the general themes of Halloween but I love the sense of community that it can engender. Its a shame we don't have more rituals that bring families into the streets with their neighbors. 

Today is scheduled for chores, Christmas craftiness and house projects. In fact, need to drag myself away from the computer and get cracking!

Different Parts of Me

Boy, no pressure writing the virgin entry on a new blog! Yikes. Why am I doing this? To talk about the journey of mothering, of course, but also of self-discovery. I hope this will become a place to talk about all the different parts of me -- many of which have, for a time, taken a back burner to my roles of mother and wife. I want to give voice to the athlete, bumbling gardner, amateur photographer, feminist/social activist, spiritual quester and growing therapist that are all part of me. Oh, and dancer! I've always wanted to dance and never really have. Shocking, isn't it? Well, unless you count hopping  and prancing about with my two tots to They Might be Giants and assorted kiddie songs. The more I think about the things I enjoy or want to experiment with, the more that comes to mind. That's exactly what I hope for this blog. An opening up in my own mind, expectations and willingness to try out these other selves.

Let's get acquainted.