Sweet Statement from Addi

"I'm glad that Jesus gave us you for a mommy."  My heart almost burst inside my chest.  I'm glad too, baby girl...so glad.

Ballet Class Update

We have been to four ballet classes now.  Addi did amazingly well for the first three classes.  Things sort of fell apart at yesterday's class though.  OK, they didn't really fall apart, but Addi was NOT in the mood to listen.  She listened some, but not nearly as well as she had been.  She was twirling when she was supposed to be standing still, turning around when she was supposed to be facing the teacher, etc.  She was just not into it that much.  Of course, the entire class had an off day.  One child (who  has been in classes for two years) decided she wanted to sit in a corner the entire class.  The others were just rambunctious and not really listening.  It wasn't just Addi, but I was mortified anyway.  I made her tell her teacher she would listen next time.  She did tell her that but when we got into the car she about broke my heart..."Mommy, it's tough being in ballet class and learning difficult things."  I was ready to pull her out of the class for good.  I want to shield her from the difficulties and instead Jared and I are paying for her to have them.  I almost cried, but I stopped myself and just told her, "Addi, I know that it is tough to try to learn new things.  That's why you practice though.  So you can master the new things.  You will get it soon.  You just can't give up."  She listened halfheartedly while looking at the car window and mentioned a couple more times throughout the afternoon that ballet class was hard.  I told Jared when he got home and told him that maybe we should take her out of class.  He talked to her about class and she never mentioned anything about it being difficult.  She told him she had fun.  He also told me that we can't pull her out of something just because she said it's hard because that's not teaching her to persevere. He is right and I know that.  

This morning, after I had to correct her for something, she started sulking and told me that ballet class was hard.  Then it hit me...she was playing her mommy...and playing me well.  I asked her why she said it was hard and (with some prompting from me) she finally admitted that she didn't like having to tell her teacher that she was sorry for not listening.  So there you have it.  I was stressing over her little heart hurting because ballet was tough when in reality she was just annoyed about having to say she was sorry.  I have no idea how we are going to get through the teenage years with this one.  She is already too smart for her (and mine) own good.