Dancin'

Here is a photo of me, barely 5 years old, at my recital in June of 1984.  This June, my son will be performing at his tap recital, barely 5 years old.  I am kinda psyched.

Before future him reads this in college and says I forced him into this, before people wag a finger at me, he likes dance.  He has fun. He does not mind being the only guy, and he does a pretty ok job (see previous posts).  I am proud of him for sticking with something even after he got upset with it for a bit - really, he was upset with the fact that they kept rehearsing the same song over and over again. I checked with other moms, and we were not alone.  Now everyone seems to love it again and he cannot wait to have his performance.

It has been a tough week.  For no good reason.  But when I left with the boys for our day this morning I thought to myself, when we get home tonight we need to dance together.  It didn't happen.  We arrived home and much happened, none of it dance and fun. They fought over the ATV toy in the garage and I had too much organizing/cooking/packing/cleaning up to do.  But, after dinner, it occurred to me that Joel will probably not willingly want to tap dance with me ever again.  So, I dug out my old tap shoes, pictured above (for James!  ha!); found my adult tap shoes, and called Joel Andrew down to get his.

James could not fit his almost three year old feet into my 5 year old girl tap shoes to save his life.  Oh well.  So, he stomped in sneakers to his great dismay.  But Joel and I tapped around.  Its pretty awesome to see your kid totally entranced with what you are doing, and as I did time step after shuffle ball change Joel Andrew was mesmerized.  It was awesome.

Then, in total and complete utter seriousness, Joel showed me his whole dance routine.  He was proud and excited.  Afterwards, we looked at my old dance photos, laughed at my shiny dance shoes, and Joel Andrew asked when he can dance with me again.  Anytime buddy, anytime.