better times

Mika went to her cooking class on Friday and managed to participate without needing a parent with her - phew. As I figured, her reward for a job well-done was forgotten in her excitement of the victory over social anxiety. Mika burst out of the classroom and immediately announced to me that she spoke to two different kids all by herself - meaning that she initiated conversation. Ah grand. She's coming along nicely.

Tonight was Mika's dress rehearsal for her first dance recital this coming Saturday. The kid has been having breakdowns about going to class claiming that she is too scared. There were no changes that caused this - seems out of the blue. The couple of times we made her go against her will, the teacher told me that Mika refused to dance. The class is almost an hour - an hour of my kid standing with her arms folded glaring at the world and refusing to communicate with anyone. Whee! I asked Mika how is she going to know her moves for the recital if she doesn't dance in class? - she told me that she knew all the moves and showed off for me. Huh - so I was hooped there.

Nana took Mika to her final class last Saturday because I was working a bingo for Mika's soccer team. It seemed to work for the kid because she danced and participated like anyone else. Tonight she pranced and danced on stage like it was made for her. There was a 1.5 hour wait between Mika's class routine and the finale and these wee kids handled it just fine. I was aching for a coffee.

Mika planned to quit dance after this year, but her interest is renewed after seeing the teachers and big kids dance. "Mum, I wanna go back to dance next year. I'm gonna learn ALL those fancy moves because I'll need them when I'm a rock star...or maybe people can just dance around me while I sing...but I still wanna know those fancy moves like the big kids..."

Oi.