Swimming lessons or dance lessons?

It was a question I posed to Rhys a couple of months ago. Without missing a beat, she declared, "Dance lessons!" And so it was settled.

No surprise, she absolutely loved it. Nothing would get her out of bed, into her clothes, and through her entire bowl of oatmeal faster than the simple statement of fact: "Rhys, it's Saturday."

"BALLET SCHOOL!" And suddenly she was the most agreeable child on the face of the planet.

The teacher sounded surprised when I told her that Rhys had a leotard and tights. (Rhys actually has two leotards, but who's counting?) She also sounded surprised that I didn't want to sit in on the class. She encourages parents to come for an initial visit to "see what they get up to" during classes. Okay, okay, I really, really wanted to sit in and watch the adorableness that is three-year-olds attempting to do this beautiful thing called ballet, but I didn't want to distract Rhys, so I declined.

For the first couple of weeks, Rhys wore the standard ballet class attire of the U.S.-trained ballerina (pink tights and a black leotard - my camera died before I got a decent picture of the black and pink ensemble, so this will have to do):


Then she got the official "uniform" of the three-year-old U.K.-trainined class, and the cuteness was out of control:

I think it only took me two weeks to convince her that she couldn't wear it twenty-four hours a day.

The last day of school was yesterday, and as her ballet studio operates according to the school schedule, Rhys didn't have class this morning. And she was most certainly disappointed.

"Mommy, what day is today?"

"Saturday."

"Am I going to ballet school today?"

"Nope. You won't go to ballet school or regular school for the next six weeks."

"Six weeks! Oooohhhh!"

Her disappoint was so sincere, that I'm considering breaking out the mad dancing and reading skills of Yours Truly during the summer holidays. We'll do a little dancing and a little learning this August, and maybe, just maybe, if you ask very nicely and come bearing gifts, I'll let you join in for a lesson or two. :)