Introducing Kaitlyn the Ballerina....

Kaitlyn started taking dance 6 years ago when she was 3 years old. Her first class was a Creative Movement/Ballet Combo class. She loved to come home and perform for anyone who would watch her. The only thing was she would not dance until she was announced. So every time she was ready to perform her routine, someone had to say dramatically "Introducing....Kaitlyn the Ballerina!!" And if she didn't like the way you said it she would make you do it again. At that point I knew that she was definitely a dancer.

I was positive of this until the night of her very first dance recital. She had two routines to dance that night and I remember she was very nervous about it. When I dropped her off in the dressing room she began to tear up but I figured she would be ok after a couple of minutes. When it was her turn to dance her teacher led her and the rest of her group on the dark stage, and when the music started the lights turned on. They had never practiced it that way during the dress rehearsal and I think it totally freaked Kaitlyn out to see the room packed full of people, and she just stood on the stage and cried. To say the least I was completely mortified! Her second dance went a little bit better. She came onstage with red, puffy eyes but she actually danced a little bit until she tripped and fell on stage. Then she was embarrassed and started crying again. This was the same year that she announced to the owner of the studio during the finale of the show that she had to go potty, so the owner announced in the microphone that the mother of this little girl needs to come get her and take her to the bathroom.

After this recital experience James and I were really not sure if Kaitlyn was going to be the dancer that we thought she was going to be. But she convinced us that she still wanted to take lessons and we signed her up again for more classes......at a new studio of coarse :)

We put her in Rising Star Dance Center and that's where she has been ever since. This year she made the Elite team and she went to her very first competition today at Firestone High school. Her group earned a silver for their lyrical dance. The studio got a trophy and she got to take home a ribbon. It really was awesome that they earned a silver because it was everybody's first time at competing.

It hit me today as I was watching her dance that she is growing up so fast......I really don't know where the last 8 1/2 years have gone. And she really has become the dancer that I had hoped she would. And for the very first time she had a huge smile on her face while she was performing which was awesome. I realized that all the practices and the time spent running her back and forth 3 days a week to the studio, not to mention all the money put into her classes have been totally worth it to see her so happy today and to see her do well enough with her group to win a trophy at their very first competition. It will be fun to see what the future has in store for her, and what opportunities will come about from her years of dancing. Now everybody just needs to remind me that I wrote this when it comes down to recital week and we are practically living at the dance studio......