Firsts

Yesterday I took Scout to her first day of Kindergarten. She was greeted with the school mascot. I have to wonder if that practice scares more kids then relaxes..... She wasn't sure what she felt about him, but I was glad she was a good sport enough to let him get close for a picture. Today while we were getting ready for day two, she asked me if the cougar had be there.
Everyday when they get to class, they take their name off the board and put it in the front of the room under a question they have to answer. Yesterday was: Do you like to swim?
Scout was one of two kids that put their names in the "no" column. She likes most other things, but swimming encroaches on her ear hangup.

SOO nervous. She never cried, but I also couldn't get a smile either (besides the creepy forced smile I get when I ask her to smile and she isn't feeling it).

She goes in the afternoon track which is fine, perhaps not ideal, but better then 8. She came home yesterday all smiles and couldn't wait to go back today, so I guess I can't ask for better then that. This morning she told me that her new school was a lot like her old school. I asked why and she told me because "they both teach me a lot of easy stuff I already know"- I figure that won't last too long, but glad she is ahead instead of behind.
This everyday school thing is something I could really get used to! I am loving having three and a half hours with just Little Little. It really would have been nice last year when Elle was a newborn, but we survived just fine.

I labeled this post "firsts" since Scout had another first in the last few weeks-- ballet.
She has been talking about being a ballet dancer for years and one day last year we were at the park and ran into a girl in our ward that teaches ballet and we started talking and she said, "I don't want to seem creepy or something, but your daughter has got the perfect little ballet body- she's tall, lean and muscular". I told her that I kind of thought that and Scout has expressed interest in ballet, so I thought I would wait until she was 5 and enroll her in Jenny's studio. Jenny's ballet and performing arts portfolio is incredible including Ballet West a lot of other impressive sounding Ballet companies I haven't heard of since I don't follow ballet, and about a million ballet schools including the Berlin Ballet School. She has also danced at Radio City Music Hall with the Rocketts. Her studio, BAC - Barlow Arts Conservatory won Best in Utah 2010, so I think it's safe to say that Scout is in good hands and we are lucky to be friends with Jenny and have gotten to know her.
So, we enrolled her for the fall semester, and when it came time to go to her first class, we had a melt down. She was so scared for whatever reason and just cried that she wished ballet didn't exist. We got in the car to go and she cried herself to sleep:
I had to sit in the studio for most of the class. The first 15 minutes, Scout stood in line with the other girls and refused to move and just scowled. I couldn't decide if I was more annoyed or amused. Finally with the help of Paw Prints Glitter Stars, we got her to loosen up and dance with the rest of the class. She has been gung-ho ever since.

This picture was taken right after class (of course- since she looks happy).
Yesterday a little before dinner she did a ballet stance and asked me what it was. I am very ignorant of ballet positions so I had to tell her I didn't know. She thought about it for a minute and then goes, "oh, it's an anjule' " -I have no idea if I spelled that right, but it was so cute!-.
If I am going to have a ballet dancer daughter, maybe I should learn a few things.

(For the record, she is 3 for 3 with falling asleep on the way to ballet- guess it's just that time of day for a 15 minute car trip).

We have also started her soccer season, but that is not a first so I will save any news there for another post.