It was tough to think of a song title for this one, because the topic kind of rambles.  I thought of Dancing Queen, Tiny Dancer but that was too specific.  In terms of a non-song title, it could also be titled – the tale of the purple leotard/summer adventures 2013.  This summer has come and gone too quickly.  In a blink of an eye, we have gone from celebrating the end of the school year to the start of another.  The summer started simply enough.  I arranged for Rachel to stay home with a sitter on gym practice days, so she could take it easy before/after practice and work on basic academic stuff.

Then the schedule started to steam role.  First it was dance recital – ugh.  Dance recitals are not super emotional for

Rachel and Sarah (both looking terrific in purple) with Bryan following the dance recital.

Bryan, but I cry every time I see my little girl twirl around in a tutu!  It was always my selfish dream to see a little girl of mine ballet dancing, and Rachel looks like a picture at recital time.

Sarah had a big milestone on dance recital day – she rolled over for the first time!   I had volunteered (insert, my arm was twisted) into volunteering in the green room for the dance recital, and Rachel and I needed to drop off Sarah at the daycare during the dress rehearsal.  I placed Sarah in the crib and she looked up turned over and presto – on her belly she was!  Then she screamed, LOL!  I was so thrilled – myself and all of the nursery workers cheered for a minute and then off Rachel and I went to the dance rehearsal stuff.  I know this makes me an awful person, but I was happy that at least I was standing there when she did a cool thing for the first time AND it happened on a day with another big event so that I could remember the specific time and day that Sarah first rolled over.

Rachel in her “big kid” leotard

By mid-summer, the big kid in the family really started doing big-kid stuff – church camp, sleepover at a friends house (as well as hosting her own sleepover!), graduating to the next level of ballet, starting violin lessons, and the most Earth shattering – switching gyms.  Church camp was great, great, great and the sleepovers were fun.  Moving to the next ballet level was, well, not as straight forward.  After a few trial weeks, Rachel earned the “purple leotard” – wow, amazing.  She really seemed to be liking ballet and Sarah seemed oblivious to hanging out at the studio.  Rachel really loves the violin.  She loves it so much that she practices with no complaint and is agreeable to the early Saturday practice.

Within the past week though, our world has changed…  When sis was born, I never imagined that my daughter would be a gymnast.  As a matter of fact, I would have said – no way will I ever let my kid do that stuff!  She will play piano, do ballet, collect butterflies, anything besides the terrifying world of gymnastics!  But low and behold, here I am with a kid that loves gymnastics and has always been very happy in a gym.  It is hard to describe.  It kind of reminds me of that video from the mid-90s of the little kid in the honey bee costume that is a misfit until she finds a field with a bunch of other honey bees (I think the song was No Rain, by Blind Melon?  or something like that?).  Anyway, she has been wanting to switch for a while and Bryan and I let her try another place.  Holy cow – I couldn’t believe how happy she was at the new place.  Even though Rachel’s skills weren’t up to speed with the other kids because she hadn’t been working the same skills this summer, she was overflowing with happiness!  The transition to the new has been easier for her than me and Bryan.  We both have cried – the stress of wanting her in a place where she will thrive yet moving on beyond the familiarity of the old has been agonizing.   So now, the hard earned purple leotard will not be used for the big-kid ballet class because gymnastics practice will conflict.

I just hope that when Rachel looks back on the summer of 2013 that she will be happy and know how much we wanted it to be great.  If Sarah can remember rolling over on her tummy on the day of Rachel’s dance recital, I will be even more impressed!