Dancing Queen

"You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen

Dancing queen, feel the beat from the tambourine

You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life

See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the dancing queen."

~"Dancing Queen" by ABBA

Well, the official dance season has begun.

Emily, our little dancing queen, started dance class yesterday. (Of course, she's only 9-going-on-10 not 17...but she's definitely "young and sweet" to us.)

She's been doing it for so long now we thought it would be comfortable like an "old hat." But she did feel a bit anxious as she has two classes this year and a new teacher.

Still, once she was there and in her new shoes, she was in her element and found friends from last year's class.

Stuart and I are excited to see what she learns this year -- especially because she's taking 2 1/2 hours of classes per week this year.

But her smiles after class are always a return on our investment.

* * *

As an aside...pardon the "soap box."

Why do we, as parents, need to make comments on how "big," "tall," or, like one mom yesterday said, "thin" the girls have gotten?

That mom -- somewhat outspoken anyway -- really shocked us when she said to Emily that she's lost "a lot of weight."

I said that Emily has never been heavy.

The mom was a bit flustered and agreed that Emily must have grown taller.

I wanted to tell her that Emily is already concerned about her weight and how much "fatter" she looks compared to the other girls in class. (But she's a good 4 to 5 inches taller than most of them, too.)

A little sensitivity to feelings... Not too much to ask, is it?