glee

That's what music does for my girl. Like most four year old girls, she loves to dance. If she is in the middle of something and a particular song playing takes her fancy, she will drop what she's doing and head to her designated dancing spot near the dining table. I have managed to hold her off lessons until the new year. I have an enrolment form to complete and send back. She has specified for the last six months that she would like her tutu {read: floaty ballet skirt} to be blue.

Perhaps I am a cruel mum in that she has been asking to go to dancing classes for the past twelve months. Initially I thought 'after the baby arrives', because Eliot's pregnancy really took it out of me and I was only doing what was absolutely necessary to keep the house running and everybody alive. Then after Eliot had arrived, and I got my energy back and we moved into life with three little ones, I found myself wanting to keep her with me all the time, outside of her two kindy sessions. She was growing so fast. And in the blink of an eye we would be exchanging the kindy run for the school one. You mamas know what I mean. It is with the precious arrival of a new little soul that the growth of your bigger little soul(s) is magnified, and promptly shoved in your face. As if your emotions needed help being completely unreliable on top of the hormones.

Nowadays, from the time our babes are born there is such an obscene amount of activity on offer, participation of which does not even require they can hold their own head up, let alone hold a tamborine. These first years before they hit school, are so so precious for me. Very little by way of commitments, outside of kindy, is perfect for us. From the time she starts school, she will have so many things to commit herself to, I want to keep these first years as free and open as possible. I know what's coming. My sisters and I danced for more than 10 years. In the beginning for fun, and then for competition, which was still fun. Over the years we built up to classes, teaching and/or practicing six days a week. My mum was sooooo over the moon when I got my licence. No more dance run.

Anyway, she is so ready to go and join the other little dancing queens. And you know you'll be seeing her in all her blue tutu glory.