Ballet

Ben usually only goes on his business trips to NYC once a quarter, but during Thanksgiving break he found out that he was going to have to fly in to attend a Goldman Sachs Christmas party and to give literally a 3 minute presentation.  So while Ben was partying it up at the Rockettes' Christmas show, I was sitting at home debating with myself.  Do I take all 4 of the kids to Lily's dance performance or do we just skip it all together?  It was a very casual performance in one of the dance studios, so it wouldn't have been a big deal to miss it.  Plus, Lily had missed a few practices with our Hong Kong trip and other reasons, so she wasn't up to speed on the entire dance.

Ultimately, I figured, meh, it's an hour.  I can survive an hour of anything.  Even with two toddlers in tow.  Even when one of those toddlers is Thaddeo.

Fast forward to when we arrived at ballet and realized that I had forgotten to put Lily's hair up in a bun.  That may sound trivial, but Holly Springs School of Dance has a pretty strict dress policy and not having your hair up in a bun is unacceptable.  Lily's hair is shoulder length and when I put it up in a bun once and hair started popping out of the bun, she sent word from her teacher that I was supposed to pin it next time.  Without any hair ties to be found, I looked back at Ella with her hair in these adorable pig tails, pulled out her hair ties, and put up Lily's hair in this terrible un-brushed bun.

*sigh*

For once, they kept the door open during practice.  Ella and Thaddeo were thrilled not to have to take turns being held up to see through the one way mirror window.

Have I ever mentioned that I think Lily is just absolutely beautiful?  Because I look at her everyday in awe.  Honestly.

Lily is so determined to go far in ballet.  She desperately wants to do pointe, but I've told her that that will be several years down the road.  I hope she sticks with it because I never grow tired of watching her dance.  She may not always be on beat or twirling in the right direction, but when she dances on her own, she is so beautiful.

One of my favorite things is that Lily has started giving Ella dance lessons at home because each night in Ella's personal prayers she says, "...and please bless that Lily will teach me ballet."  They hold onto the sofa, go through different positions, practice different moves, and then they dance together.  In other words, it's beyond precious and I really should record it one of these days.