I told her when we got to the studio that this was "big girl dance" and that I wouldn't be coming into the classroom with her and she looked at me...and said, "Bye, mom!"
They started with ballet and ended with tap...but about 20 minutes into class (with her upstairs in the classroom, me downstairs in the waiting area), I realized she didn't have tap shoes...so I rushed up to the office - luckily they had a pair in her size in stock so I bought them, wrote her name inside each one with a Sharpie and handed them to the studio owner to take in to her (so I thought).
After class, the cute little dancers made their way down the steps one by one. My girl was the last one down...and she was still wearing her ballet shoes...
I asked Lucy where her tap shoes were and she stared at me blankly and just shook her head no (as far as she knew, she didn't own tap shoes). The teacher walked by carrying a shoe box so I asked her if they were Lucy's tap shoes...she said no and opened the box to reveal and old pair of ballet shoes...I asked her where Lucy's tap shoes were and she, too, stared at me blankly. I started to go upstairs to check the classroom when I hear a dad ask, "Who's Lucy Meyers?"
There was some sort of mix up that resulted in his daughter wearing my daughter's tap shoes (luckily I had written her name in them!) for the first class.
I was so sad that after I'd rushed up to buy them and send them in, she still didn't get to tap-tap-tap but when I realized Lucy hadn't been fazed, I made myself get over it. After all, if I had been more prepared, Lucy would have had shoes in advance and therefore would have known she had tap shoes to wear.
When we got home, though, she put those little suckers on and tapped on every hard surface she could find. I am so excited for her for next week's class when she gets to tap around with her friends and teachers!
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As sweet as our girl can be, she can sure be challenging at times...
Bedtime struggles have cropped back up - Tuesday night was bad (lots of crying when Daddy came back down from putting her to bed) but Wednesday night was horrific. She screamed and screeched and cried, cried, cried.
She's used to having a little snack every evening as part of her wind-down, bedtime routine. I went up there Wednesday night and told her we were really disappointed with how she was acting and that she wasn't getting a bedtime snack for the rest of the week. Dave had already been up there a couple of times and when I went up for a second time, I told her there was a new rule - for every time after being put to bed that she calls for one of us to come up, we're taking a friend out of her bed (she has A LOT of "friends" in bed with her - baby dolls, stuffed animals, etc.).
Last night rolled around and she asked what she could have for snack...
I know they say that punishments should be in the moment so the child can directly relate it to the offense but, trust me! The bedtime saga was so intense that there was no chance she'd forgotten about it.
Just to be sure, though, I asked, "What happened last night?" and she quietly said, "I cried and screamed at bed time" and I asked, "What did we talk about?" and she said, "No snack?"
Yeah, she remembered.
Parenting is hard! She'd been so good and fun and funny all evening and I felt like she did deserve a snack...but I also didn't want to back down from a consequence I'd spelled out. And the way she accepted it made her seem so small and sweet; I just wanted to let her have whatever she wanted! And maybe it is unfair to punish a 3 year old almost 24 hours later...?
But we went with no snack and she didn't put up a fight as we watched a little bit of a Tinkerbell movie. At 8:50 (when the big hand got to the 10), I told her it was bedtime and she said ok - no fighting or whining! Hooray! She went right into the bathroom and brushed her teeth. I told her to go potty and she actually pulled her pants down and sat there for a second but then said, "I don't have to go," so I took her word for it and took her upstairs.
We got up there and she asked me to read her a book but Daddy was out and Max was starting to cry so I told her, "not tonight" but said she could look at a book on her own for a few minutes.
As soon as I got back downstairs and settled in to feed Max, I hear her on the monitor, "Mommmmyyyyyy...I need to go pottttyyyy!"
I went up there, holding Max, and she was as sweet as she could be. "I can walk down the stairs by myself since you're holding Max."
If she'd already gone once before bed or if I'd forgotten to make her try, it would have been one thing...but this is one of her frequently used tricks to prolong bedtime so I asked, "What else did we talk about last night?" and she whined, "But I want all of my friends!"
Yeah, she remembered.
I randomly chose a friend - the white stuffed unicorn she'd won at the St. Joe festival - and guess how she reacted...
"I didn't really want him in here anyway."
And she didn't say it snotty...more like, thanks for doing me a favor, mom...
You're welcome, kid...
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