(disclaimer: this was before we knew how to tie her ghillies!!)
Little Miss Samantha comes from a very Irish family on her daddies side. Her papa can often be found relaxing by playing his mandolin or playing that or guitar with his friends at the Irish club or other venues. One of her aunts was an Irish step dancer when she was younger and her twin aunts, who are 21, continue to dance and compete today! A certain other family member of hers, who I am not allowed to name ;-), was also a step dancer. Ever since we watched our wedding video a few months back Samantha has been completely obsessed with Irish step dancing. We watch tons of videos and she was very excited to take classes.
The last time we visited Connecticut, Samantha participated in a class that one of her aunts was teaching and she had SO much fun. She participated for the entire class and learned a lot of new things. Afterwards she kept talking and talking and talking about starting dance and how badly she wanted her own special step dancing shoes and socks. For her Connecticut class, Grandma got her special socks that look like they have shoes on them which she was extremely excited about.
Once we returned to Virginia I contacted one of the local schools and found out that their classes don't start until aged 4. After talking back and forth though, we agreed to let Samantha try out classes now. We signed up for a 4 week/8 class summer session that began the first week of August. We ordered her special shoes (that are two sizes too big since her feet are so tiny!) and her special socks (that I completely ruined before classes even started!). She was so excited to start class and the first day she hardly said goodbye to me as she ran up the stairs to class. She came down about 20 minutes later for a drink of water and exclaimed "phew, Irish step dancing is super hard!" She came out again about 20 minutes later for another drink and told us again how hard it was! The first two classes though, she did great and stayed for just about the whole class. An hour class sure is long for a 3 year old!! The second week however did not go as well. On class 3, she repeatedly came out of class and wasn't listening so I ended up leaving early with her. Class 4 was much of the same but the teacher invited me to come in with her. I was thinking I'd just stand with her and encourage her to participate but no...I actually took the class and danced with her! Let me tell you, at 35 weeks pregnant, it was quite the feat. I was SO sore afterwards. Today was much of the same with her sitting down, not listening to the teachers, and running around doing her own thing (still step dancing, but not what her little group was working on). We are going to attempt to finish out the last 3 classes but I don't think we will continue dancing into the fall. She does love dance, and practices at home all the time, but she is showing that she is not quite ready for an hour long class and having to focus for that amount of time. She cried when I told her we wouldn't be doing dance in the fall, but it wasn't sad enough to motivate her to behave during class, haha!! Hopefully once she turns 4 things will change and we will be able to try again next summer. She sure looks cute dancing and I can't wait to see her in the little dresses and competing and getting better and better! For now though, we will find a fall activity geared a little more towards her age group.
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