Monday, June 28, 2010

Confession Number 44: She's All About the Dress Up

This morning as KJ and I were eating breakfast I pulled calendar of activities for the Summer Reading Program at our local library.  I noticed they were giving hula dancing lessons today.  I immediately thought she would love it, but noticed we only had 30 minutes to get around and get there.  In 25ish minutes I fixed KJ's hair, brushed her teeth and got her dressed complete with shoes and a bow.  Sat her in front of Imagination Movers while I showered, put on makeup, "fixed" my hair and dressed.  Luckily, I had already brushed my teeth, for all of you out there who were wondering where that fit into the schedule.  We ran out the door and made it to the library only a few minutes late.

The lady had finished her introduction and was just getting the girls up to dance.  Perfect timing, really.  No blah, blah, Hula, blah, blah, Hawaii, just dancing fun.  Kennedy was by far the youngest, so I got up to help her and after awhile she announced very loudly that she wanted "to do it by myself!".  Well, okay.  Really, who cares if she just stands there and waves her arms?  And sometimes acts like she is flying.  And runs around the other "dancers" singing.  She was having a good time.  Then the lady took a little break and handed out leis in preparation for the big dancing finale.  The oldest girl in the group had brought her grass skirt and the lady had 2 others, so she put them on the two next oldest girls.  Now, there were only 5 girls in the group, so that left KJ and a girl maybe 4 or so the odd men out.  I'm thinking,
"Uh oh.  Has this lady never worked with kids before?  Okay, maybe I can turn this into a great learning opportunity and she will surprise me with her understanding."

Um.  Think again.  She didn't throw a fit.  She didn't even cry.  A little whining from both girls, then the 4 year old was fine.  My daughter?  She sat on a chair and refused to dance until she had a grass skirt.  Loudly saying, "I want to dance with a skirt".........over and over and over again.  I quietly whisper to her that it isn't her turn for a skirt and she had a pretty flower necklace.  Whoops.  "I don't want a flower necklace!  I want to dance with a skirt!"  So I said, if you don't get up and dance, we'll have to leave.  Her response?  "Okay!  I wanna go home!"   She's all about the dress up. 

1 comment:

  1. Atta girl--give her choices you can both live with: dance with a lei or go home. So what if she chose to go home? She didn't throw a fit, she weighed her options, and she lived with the consequences of her choice. I think that's pretty smart!

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