so, just a couple of weeks before christmas, m had her very first dance recital!!
since the day we signed her up for dance, i’ve been sooo nervous about how this would go. i, myself, hated recitals when i was younger. like… really. i remember being 3 or 4 in my free community ballet class where the recital was just a handful of moms in a gymnasium, and i could not belieeeve i was being forced to perform! and by age 15 i still just was not cut out for that kind of spotlight. a torn hamstring ended my career not at all too soon, 😉 but, hey! at least i gave it a go! horse shows, i could do, however… and hope to do again, one day, just for the record. 🙂
anyway! as fate would have it, our little princess butterfly ballerina tap dancer was so so sick the week leading up to her recital, which she had already decided she was too nervous to do. i mean, she was more sick than i have ever seen her. rocco and i were sick, too, but girlfriend had the worst of it and was knocked out for days. it was terrible!
so, when the day of the recital finally rolled around, m was definitely, thankfully on the mend, but still just super worn out, and… well, long story short, it was by some absolute miracle that we got her to the location, dressed with a ballerina bun and all. i didn’t want to traumatize her by any means, but i also knew deep down she wanted to do it! but was exhausted and purely terrified. i stayed back stage with her the whole night, and seriously, up until the absolute very last second i was thinking this thing was probably not going to go down. then… by yet another miracle she marched out there with fresh tears still in her eyes, and absolutely nailed her little performance!!! smiling, laughing, dancing away!
[and at that age, they watch the teacher off to the side doing it with them. thank goodness!!]
[my mom took this in the dark audience of rocco excitedly spotting his sis!]
believe me when i say she and i both shed tears that night! i was standing there so proud and so in shock, and i knew in the end she was going to be proud of herself for facing her fears, sick as a little doggy and all. [it was also an evening performance, ha. talk about survival mode!] after it was over, she came out to both sets of grandparents, my siblings, beautiful flowers, and her daddy even bought her a little bracelet. and! apparently rocco was a dream through the whole thing… the boy sat and watched! an evening of miracles, i tell you! also, we have since talked about the whole experience, and she now looks back on it so proud of herself and excited to start back for the spring. 🙂
precious girl! we are SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!! you are always, always stronger than you know. and i promise you only have to be a dancer as long as you want to. 🙂
and as a sidenote!! i have really tried to kind of steer away from sharing too much about the babes on the internet these days… for their safety, of course, and also for the purpose of not telling their stories for them, when it will one day be their choice of how to share their stories! that day will come sooner than it seems and i don’t want them to look back and be like “mom! really??” buuuut, some things also kind of merit a grand ole feature. hopefully someday she’ll look back on this and know how ridiculously, insanely proud we are of her and how strong she truly is inside… even at 4 years old. 🙂
Look at that sweet girl! I absolutely love this!
Oh I can only imagine the pride and the nerves you felt for her! And look how well she did! I think with these things it almost hurts us more than them. They are so resilient and don't quite know why they feel the way they feel. Ah. It gets me. And her family there suppprting her you know I love! Flowers! How sweet!! Way to go Maddo!!
Oh my goodness – how precious!! Love this!
Way to go Maddalena!!!! I have been trying to prepare Mia for her first recital this spring since we signed up in the fall, she is quite nervous too, but I think it will be a similar situation when the day comes 🙂 For now though, there's a lot of "Mama I don't want to be up on a stage!" And of course I won't make her do it! But I have a feeling the sparkly costume maaay just convince her 😉 Isn't it so fun to see what the littles learn they love as they grow??
How precious is this omg?! I die!!