Dance

We're very conscious about not over-scheduling the girls and our family these days. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the modern parental mindset of having to expose your small children to every creative opportunity known to humanity all in the first five years. We are taking our time in this family and enjoying every moment. Having said that, sometimes a child leads you to an activity with clarity and... well, flamboyance.

Stella has started a creative dance class. Pretending, leaping and twirling - she loves it.

My favorite moments aren't actually during the dance class itself. It's when we return home and I catch her sashaying across the playroom or gracefully leaping to the bathroom when she thinks nobody is looking. I so remember believing I was Clara from the Nutcracker, and it's so sweet to see Stella enter a whole new world of imagination and movement. And now that she's asking me to teach her French (from what little I remember), she now does all this while saying, "Bonjour!" and "Je t'aime, mon cheri!"

Plus, how cool is this tree? After every class, the kids run outside to the gigantic tree in the courtyard and climb like monkeys.