I wanna be like you

2years 134days

Remember when you were little, how the big kids always looked really really big, and you just stood in awe of them, and would do stuff, just because they asked you to? Katie's a bit like that with the big girls who help with dancing.

She's doing so well with the class, each week doing more and more, getting more confident to not have me by her side. For the first few sections this morning, I was sat on the chairs with the other mums, for the first time since she started. She's getting the routine of the class too, what follows on from what, which is important to Katie, my little creature of habit, so she's excited to join in. She's doing it all with such a huge beam on her face too. She's learning to stand on the lines/crosses/marks when she's asked to, or to wait patiently til its her turn. She's learnt that how she's been shown to stand the past few weeks is called First Position. She knows that the knee bends they learnt are plies. And that her noisy shoes are her tap shoes.

After ballet, we had a very fabulous afternoon. We went to meet the friends from Belfast that we visited in the summer (and havent seen since) for an afternoon in York. Before we met them, we had to walk along the riverside to get from the carpark. The university was hosting a rowing regatta and we spent a while watching the boats.

We had a yummy lunch all together before we had a wander round. We spent ages in the Mickey Mouse shop- leaving only with a cup, which is a good result. We stopped at Wittards for Katie to run in for her free sample. She had two and then came back out again. There was a dancing school performing in the centre which she enjoyed watching. We then took a walk to Cliffords Tower, then through the gardens to the riverside. We went back through the centre, stopping at Costa for a quick babyccino. Her little face was a picture when she'd finished it - she picked the cup up and scowled at it "what happened there then?" before we spent a while in the bookshop, reading until she'd picked a book to take home.

On the way through back through the city centre, we was a fantastic 5piece jazz ensemble performing. Katie was dancing to the first piece we heard, and thought it was rather amusing when they got people watching to clap to the second. We walked through to the Museum Gardens and spent a really happy time in the early evening sun, her running round the trees and flowers, chasing another toddler on a ramp.

Far too quickly, it was time to say goodbye. But Katie and I spent another half hour exploring the winding paths of the gardens. So many squirrels to say hello to! She's developed something of a dislike of pigeons tho, so she froze everytime one came near here. We stopped off to buy some tea, before setting off home. She was asleep in the car by 6.15!