"Dance class today, mom?" For the last couple months Avery and Presley have frequently asked me that question. My good friend Kaedi Fahlberg (Garvin) lives in Durham right now with her family, and she told me about a dance teacher who teaches 2 year olds for 1/2 hour a week. Sydney, Kaedi's daughter has been dancing too. We have gone every week for two months and both girls are definitely going to be sad the next time I have to answer their question, because we went to dance class today for the last time (at least for a while anyway).
This was the scene the first few times: the coaxing of Presley by mom and teacher while everyone looked on. Eventually, she did decide things were too exciting to miss, and changed her attitude.
Avery (in purple) on the other hand, was enthusiastic from the first moment. She proved to be one of the best listeners and one of the most coordinated in the class!
Some of the activities included twirling and throwing stuffed animals into the air, leaping with magic wands and doing glorified actions to Itsy Bitsy Spider, Pop Goes the Weasel and Ring Around the Rosies. They even stirred and squished applesauce with their fingers and toes. In this picture they are painting the sky with their toes - they would take turns choosing a color and a subject matter and then lean back and go for it. Pink princesses, rainbow clouds, purple flowers...
This part was my favorite! They would all line up and wait their turn to "tiptoe" down the masking tape line, leap over the horizontal line, twirl in the square and do a leg lift on the cross at the end. It was so entertaining to watch each little person, especially when they did their leg lifting!
Avery twirling (and Presley waiting her turn with the others).
The best shot of a leg lift I could ever get...
Toward the end of the two months, they learned a little dance (or some actions) to the song "I'm Taking Home a Baby Bumble Bee." Avery and Sydney are holding the bumble bee and Presley has her buzzing wings out in this picture.
I'm so glad I put forth the effort to let them have this experience. Yes, they are only two and by no means did they really learn to dance, but the tutus, the music, the "great jobs!" and the looking forward to a 1/2 hour each week was priceless!
Mornings away from home make cheerios a lot more fun! The house we stayed in was actually the same one we stayed in almost three years ago when we first moved here. Caleb was only 2 1/2, almost exactly as old as the girls are now....wow. I think he had small recollections of our first stay; he kept commenting about the excessive beach decor. Once he said "I'm so sick of all this beach stuff!" It made us laugh.
The beach was only a few minutes drive and Caleb would have chosen to play in the ocean all day. His sisters were ready to call it a day after a couple hours. But we did go every day for three days in a row - both Aaron and I had to make ourselves go on the last day. We were tired!
Presley is our little dare devil! She loved playing in the waves with dad!
Avery still prefers dry ground. In fact, she's quite terrified of the water - or probably just the whole idea of a huge, roaring body of water coming at her. If you think about it, it's quite scary from the point of view of a two-year-old. She was a good sport every day to hang out and play in the sand. We tried to think of lots of sandy activities!
"Do that to me, mom!"
One morning we drove a little while to visit one of NC's aquariums. One of the highlights was a two story shark tank and divers who swam with them while answering the spectator's questions. Here's a view of the kids looking into it. You can see both the diver and the shark behind them. Pretty neat.
This is Caleb the hermit crab. Speaking of hermit crabs, we acquired three of them as pets during our trip. They live in a makeshift aquarium in our tv room. They're pretty cute and fun and not too much work, except when the kids have them out and forget to watch where they go or almost step on them. You should see Presley the fearless pick them up and let them crawl all over her!
