Dancing Ham - July 3, 2013

Me: Ewww! You have an awful lot of boogers in your nose. Do you want me to pick them out.
Lucy: No.
Me: But they're gross!
Lucy: Every one wants to see them.


Me: Did you wash your hands?
Lucy: Yes.
Me: No you didn't - I didn't hear the water.
Lucy: I did in my imagination

Here is a picture of Lucy before her dance class. While Lucy was super excited about her swimming classes this past summer, she was not as happy about going to her dance class. We invited a friend from church to go along with us (Liani) since her mom has some vision problems and is not able to drive. The summer dance session was just six weeks from June 12-July 17. There were a few girls from her last class but a lot of new girls and a new teacher. I'm not sure what it was but Lucy often did not want to go. But she still looked super cute in her dance clothes and loved prancing around the house and posing for the camera.  

I often resorted to pleas and threats to get Lucy to go to dance class since we had pre-paid for the class and I didn't want to money to be wasted. Also, I wanted to her to learn about commitment since she was the one that wanted to take dance and I wanted her to complete what she had started. Perhaps it was because we carpooled with not only Liani, but her mom and brother. Liani is supposed to be in Lucy's class at church but she has only come about twice in the beginning of the year because she doesn't like church and does not like to be separated from her parents, especially her mother. So when she started dance, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that she would have a hard time being separated from her mother. The teacher let Liani's mom stay in the class as long as she participated and danced too (parents are not allowed in the class except for the first and last day of class). This often made Lucy clingy and want me to stay in class (which I would not do because I had Grey and I often would run errands like going grocery shopping during the class).

There was also contention over car seats on the rides to and from dance class - I had an extra car seat for Liani and a booster seat for her brother but Liani's parents had already let her use a backless booster seat even though she was still three and even smaller than Lucy and her brother not use a booster at all. This made Lucy upset because she was dying to be a big girl in a booster seat and I was still firm that she had to be in a car seat (even though she was already four but not yet 40 lbs which is the recommendation). I think it was hard for her to see someone younger and smaller than her in the booster seat. There was also tension over where the children sat. Sometimes, Lucy wanted Liani to sit next to her but Liani wanted to sit next to her brother in the third row. This would cause Lucy to be really sad. Other times, Liani wanted to sit next to Lucy and Lucy would want space and Lucy would scream at Liani that she didn't want her next to her and then Liani would cry. Oh, the drama! Although Lucy loves going over to Liani's house to play, she only goes every other week or so and her friendship with her is much different than with Aeli who she sees multiple times a week and plays together with beautifully (although they have their tiffs every once in a while too.)

Needless to say, I think we were all happy when the dance class ended. Liani's mom told me that they would not continue in the fall because she felt like she could just dance with Liani herself at home. Another sigh of relief. As for us, we decided to take a break. Just recently, Lucy has expressed a desire to do dance again but not strongly. And with the start of pre-K and its additional cost, I'm not super interested in spending more time and money at this time. So I think we will wait a while...maybe a few months or next semester or next year.