I settled for a few snaps after class was over. She was still pretty psyched.
I took Frida to her first dance class yesterday at ODC Dance Commons (which I highly recommend), and she wasn’t being all that cooperative, to be honest. Not that two year olds are known for their willingness to do as they’re told. But I was having one of those times when I worried that MY child was particularly troublesome. Everyone else was doing as the teacher instructed! But I smiled and gently coaxed her to join in on the warmup stretches.
Then, the teacher broke out the scarves, and magic happened. A room-full of toddlers and their parents were running in a big circle around the room, a brightly-colored chiffon scarf in each hand, pretending to be a flowing technicolor river. “Let your river flow!” the teacher encouraged. It would have made THE MOST amazing photograph. I could seen the Instagram likes racking up.
But when I saw the joy on Frida’s face, and felt my own, I couldn’t bring myself to truncate it. How could I put my scarves down, dig in my bag for my phone, and run back to the circle hoping nothing had changed? Because it totally would have. Mommy would no longer be a dancing river, she’d be a picture-taker. And Frida would be a toddler who forgot about dancing because she wanted mommy’s iPhone. And all the other parents would have thought I was obnoxious, and I would have felt terrible.
Maybe that’s a worst case scenario, but one things certain—I would have felt slightly less joy yesterday, but I would have had a few more photographs. I don’t regret choosing the joy.
