Mila Dance 2019 | Winter Wonderland

I get signs often lately that our house is changing.  We have entered the elementary years with two kids who know more, care about new things, and face new challenges that have stretched us as parents in new ways.  Mila is learning to read, spends a lot of time at the table going through a lot of paper, and asks us how to spell every thing.  Cruz brings football cards to school to trade, requests Post Malone on his Alexa (clean versions only), and some days comes home complaining about the unfair teams during another day of recess football.  And while these new ages and stages have at times made me miss those baby years of tiny feet and tinier problems, I also see that these kids also keep getting more fun.

Such was the case last weekend when our tiny dancer performed at her first winter performance at West High School with her Fusion dance troupe.  Mila is enrolled in two classes again this year - a Demi Ballet/Tap and a Demi Jazz/Hip Hop.  She knows many girls from her class last year and is excited to be in the same class as her little friend, Adrienne.  And while the the large majority of her love for dance is all about her little friends in it, she's also learning technique and paying closer attention to her own moves and the moves of girls a few steps ahead of her.  Our small group volunteered at the Food Bank the Wednesday before their performance and Lily, a girl our girl thinks is pretty cool, practiced some moves with Mila.  Mila soaked up every single one and practiced her foot work and her stage smile for the remainder of the week.  And the morning of the show, I caught her in front of her little mirror practicing one of her routines.    

And then the part where she checks out my makeup job.  

And her practice definitely paid off.  This was the first time she didn't have a teacher assistant on stage with her, and while they may have been off to the side doing the moves from backstage, Mila never stopped smiling her stage smile and knew her moves to a tee.  My favorite part might have been when four of the little ballerinas came on stage without the rest of their class.  One of the girls smacked her forehead in humiliation and Mila never broke a smile. :)  

She was graceful and delicate up there, two words I definitely wouldn't have used to describe our dance even last year at this time!  It's sure fun to be on the sidelines as these two grow into more of who they're designed to be.  And when I watch her dance, I smile and cry at the very same time.  

Mila Ballerina...