Then we got on to other examples. Orlando let her in on the secret that when she was born, the two of us were beginners at the whole parenting thing, and we have been figuring it out as we go along ever since. Fortunately, I don't think she believed him. It took me back to my thoughts on this evening, when I wondered how on earth I would keep this little person alive.
Sometimes, confidence is a hard thing to come by. Anastasia doesn't always believe us when we tell her she can do something. I don't know if she thinks we overestimate her abilities, or if she's afraid we'll be disappointed if she doesn't do perfectly the first time. We find that she's most confident about the things she teaches herself.
Little girl is taking ballet lessons again this year. While I don't expect her to become a prima ballerina overnight, I do hope that she will gain more confidence, a little determination, and improve her balance thanks to the practice that she gets every Saturday morning. She's come a long way from her first ballet class. In 2011, there was a bit of a stumble.
This season, the class is working with the barre and doing some more difficult balancing work than she did last year. It's fun to watch her practice, working on balancing on one leg and pointing her toes. She's working on keeping herself from wobbling and I think she sees that if she keeps at it, she'll be better in no time.
As we watch the Olympics this week, I hope we'll be able to point out some more examples of kids who started out as beginners and learned to do amazing things through practice. Today, we watched some figure skating and she marveled at how one skater fell and got right back up and kept going. She gets the value of perseverance. She just needs to remember how good it felt to ride her bike for the first time.
"I'm finally an expert! I knew this day would come!"
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