Dancing and Habit Breaking

Maggie girl had her first dance class today. Here she is sporting her new dance wear. She is very much a beginner. I was trying to get her to stand in a ballerina-like pose, but instead she looks like she needs to go to the bathroom. What is a girl to do when her best friend of a brother is in her face with a basketball all day. Even though Wil does like to wear pink, the closest he gets to dancing is saying he likes the girls on dancing with the stars. Maggie has been begging to step out on her own and pursue her own interests. She seems to have grown resistant to anything relating to sports. Mostly you'll hear Mags say she wants to be a cheerleader, but I wanted to steer her more toward ballet. I won't get into why. I just did. O.k. so maybe I am not actually letting her pick the exact interest she has in mind, but momma knows best for now. 6 months from now we may be enrolled in extreme cheerleading with Mags joyfully shouting, "Ready? O.K!" Who knows.

I called her teacher after practice because I wanted to get the 4-1-1 on how she did. Her teacher was super nice as she graciously told me that her first order of business was to help Maggie keep her fingers out of her mouth. This should have been taken care of a year ago by me. My Maggie sucks her 2 middle fingers constantly [and plays with her belly button I might add]. Don't you know all the really really intelligent ones do. Ask L.L. I'll never tell who L.L. is unless you guess. One of my resolutions for the year was to help my children break the sucking habit (Wil sucks his thumb) so Maggie's dance instructor just gave me some motivation. I put "Thum" on her fingers today. "Thum" is a liquid you paint on their fingers and thumbs to help them break the sucking habit. It burns right smart. I tried it today. We will see how it goes. If you see her in the act of sucking her fingers, gently (I emphasize gently) remind her that ballerinas don't suck their fingers.... and then tell her how pretty she looks.