My Beautiful Dancer

This is parent viewing week for the primary classes at Aris' dance studio. Halfway through the term, parents are invited to watch an entire class. This offers a much different perspective than the one gained by periodically peeking through the viewing windows.

I was a wee bit apprehensive about tonight's class. Last night when I reminded Aris, she pulled the covers up over her head and quivered in fear. Baffled, I asked her why she didn't want me to watch. She responded that she wasn't the best dancer in the class and that's why she didn't want to dance. My heart broke. Attempting to cuddle my prickly daughter, I reminded her of her love and passion for dance. She doesn't want to be a dancer when she grows up, instead she'd perfer to do something with animals. This varies from an African Lion Safari Tamer, to an entomologist, to a parrot keeper. Her vocation is always different, but typically has to do with animals. Dance isn't on the list. But when music comes on she can't hold still. Aris loves to sing, but when given the choice between singing and dancing, she dances.

I was also concerned because the last parent viewing was horrible. Aris' behaviour was atrocious and I had to speak to her quite sternly. Both her behaviour during the class and her response to my correction upset me. Thankfully, she modified her behaviour, apologized and stopped calling me a mean mommy. I'm really glad my parents were so strict because I'm finding it very helpful to pull out the examples of how I would have been disciplined. After that, my kids seem to find me quite reasonable. :)

After all of this, the class went well. She danced the best she has ever danced. Not that everything was perfect, but her lines were gorgeous as was her musicality. Best of all, she danced with joy. Her face was just lit from within. There was no shaking her finger at me or making faces this time, instead she beamed. Afterwards, she joyfully and enthusiastically thanked her teacher when I asked. And to top it all off, she didn't have a meltdown at bedtime.

My day would have been complete there. But God had one more special little gift for me. As she was getting ready for bed, Aris asked about having a bedtime snack. This started a discussion as she was not allowed to eat before bed because of her constant sore throat. The best guess the doctors could come up with was that she had acid reflux. We'd tried several things, but even the strong antacid prescribed by the specialist didn't seem to help. On our last prayer letter, Steve asked people to pray for Aris' sore throat. Today she pointed out that she hadn't had a sore throat in quite awhile. Praise God!!! This is such a blessing to me because she had complained of a sore throat for over a year. Now it's gone. Yay!