Our little monkey, err, ballerina

Tonight was Nicole's first dance class. She is taking preschool dance at a local dance studio. It is a precursor to more advanced dance she can do when she's older. This one teaches some dance basics and really just creative dance that is fun for 3-4 year olds.

Nicole has been asking pretty much every day since we registered when dance class would start. She was really, really, really, really hyper by the time we got there tonight. She's been practicing jumping on one foot this past week and has repeatedly told me that they would do this in dance class. I told her that I didn't think they would be doing one footed jumping so she shouldn't get her hopes up.

So anyway, off to dance we went. In the car Nicole told me that it was nice to get away from Daddy and Julia every once in a while. When we got to the studio there was still a class in the classroom, so we waited for them to finish. Nicole watched the class with her face pressed up to the windowed door. I think some of the girls (mid teens I'd say) were giving her strange looks. But Nicole was fascinated.

Once the room opened up, we met Nicole's teacher, Robin and the 3 other kids in the class. Parents were asked to go in to the room with the kids for a couple of minutes. They took attendance and then asked the girls if they liked to dance at home. Most of them mumbled an answer while looking at their parents. Nicole, however, launched into a detailed description of the dancing she and Julia do at home. She was about to get up and give a demonstration, but I put a stop to that. Nicole is definitely not a shy little girl. :) So after a little bit of conversation, we were told to say goodbye because parents were leaving the room. I got a quick "bye mommy" and off she ran while the other girls clung to their parents.

There are 3 dance rooms and 2 of them have viewing windows. But Nicole's class is in the room with no window. There were chairs outside the room, so all the parents sat there and attempted to catch a glance of their child in the refection of the open glassed door. We could hear everything going on. Nicole did not shut up! I know, this shouldn't surprise me. When she wasn't asking questions, she was elaborating on her dancing skills, or telling the other kids what to do ("no, the teacher said to do it this way"). I was getting more embarrassed by the minute sitting in the hallway with all the other parents. Before class I told her it was really important to listen to the teacher and do what she said. I should have also told her it was important to let the teacher talk!

The highlight of the class was when they jumped on one foot. Mommy was wrong, apparently hoping on one foot is a dance skill. They also did some running on tip toes, moving to poems and songs, and the most entertaining part for me, moving like animals. They were asked what their favourite animal was. Most of the kids said cats, dogs, etc. Nicole said monkey. Then they had to dance like that animal. I wasn't able to see much, but the thought of Nicole dancing like a monkey had me laughing. Maybe next week she'll move up to a more graceful zoo animal.

Nicole had a wonderful time and cried half the drive home because she has to wait another 7 days to do it again. But I was able to convince her that she has to teach Julia all her new moves and that cheered her up. :)

Lions and Tigers and Cows, Oh My!

We decided to take the girls to The African Lion Safari today. We were careful to not tell Nicole about it until this morning in case it was pouring rain. Disappointed 4 year olds are not fun to deal with. We woke up to lots of clouds and a storm sky and a weather report that promised sun. So Mark broke the news to Nicole. I came out of the shower and was told by Nicole "Mommy, did you hear the good news, we're going on safari!" And then the questions began. After we answered 50 questions about various animals, various modes of transportation (buses vs cars mostly), and various foods (she was hungry while we were getting ready), we headed out.

Car rides have taken on a new meaning since having children. I've never really enjoyed car rides, but I have since learned that I was crazy to not like them. Car rides pre-children are wonderful, wonderful things. Car rides with one child are tolerable. Car rides with 2 children are torture. There is a reason children under 12 are not allowed in the front seat and it has nothing to do with airbags. It is so that we can't reach our children and kill them.

Anyway, I won't bore anyone with the details. Suffice it to say, they yelled, I ignored, it was all good.

We got to the park (oh, and I've learned that you can't call things parks unless they have slides and swings, just an fyi for anyone who hasn't learned that yet) and waited in the car to pay. There was only one line open, so we waited a while. Julia doesn't understand the concept of waiting, so she cried while I cursed the African Lion Safari people and Nicole asked over and over again why Julia was crying. It wasn't all bad though. Nicole was actually very sweet and was trying to cheer Julia up. Unfortunately Julia took offense to Nicole's attempts and cried even louder.

The first thing we did was go see the birds. This was not terribly exciting for the kids, so we moved on to the petting farm. We couldn't go in with the animals because both girls are terribly afraid of anything that moves. But we did watch them from outside their pens. Julia almost touched an animal if that counts. Most of the time though she just whined at them. Nicole hid behind Mark and then needed to be carried. Good times were had by all.

Next we went to catch the bus for the ride through the animal reserves. Some people drive their vehicles, I call them crazy. Both girls were pretty excited about the bus. We saw way too many animals to talk about here. The highlights were the monkeys, lions, zebras, and giraffes, or "cows" to Julia. Every land animal is a cow. I was pretty excited when we did seem some cows (african cows, I don't remember what they're called) and quickly pointed them out to Julia. I'm pretty sure I got the "mom, we've been seeing cows all morning" look from Julia.

After the bus ride we went to watch the elephants swim in a big pond. Nicole was really interested. Julia played in the dirt and glanced at the "cows" occasionally. One of the older elephants was trying to drown a little elephant. It was entertaining in a morbid kind of way. But the little elephant just kept sticking his truck up out of the water. So he was fine.

We then had lunch. Nothing much exciting there. Julia ate well, Nicole ate something at least, story of our lives.

Then off we went to see the elephant show. We had a small issue with bees (they apparently like the smell of our stroller which should be no surprise since I'm sure many things have been spilt on it), but once we abandoned the stroller we were fine. I think the kids were getting tired by this point, so they watched the show fairly quietly. Julia had fun clapping along with the crowd. Nicole got to pet an elephant on the way out. She will touch an elephant, but not a tiny deer, go figure.

We were about to head home when Nicole spotted the train. It does a 15 minute ride through the park. Nicole stated "it will be a nice end to the day Mommy". We agreed. And it was.

Then back in the car we went, relieved that the girls were both exhausted (it was 2:15, way past nap time) and we would have a quiet car ride while the slept. Hahahahahaha. Julia slept for 10 minutes, Nicole not at all.

But all in all, it was a fun day. I think the girls really liked seeing all the animals. Nicole told me at bedtime that she is going to draw pictures tomorrow of us and the animals. She said she might need my help because she can't draw elephants. I didn't burst her bubble by telling her I can't either.