Baseball or Ballerina

as most parents do, i find myself daydreaming about what my daughter will enjoy doing as a young adult. will she be a scholar, into sports, a video gamer, or a girly girl obsessed with boys? so many different paths to take, and honestly, i genuinely feel like certain aspects of her life are already embedded into her personage. they are already there, waiting for her skills, mind, and body to develop so that that part of her personality can come out of it's cocoon and fly. it's those. those hidden little characteristics about my daughter that i love discovering. because as i notice them now, it could be my first glimpses of how amazing and talented she will be as she gets older.

ever since she was born she has been super flexible. and i know, i know, that all newborns are flexible, but. hers has stayed past her newborn days. and people have asked if she is double jointed or something because of the crazy positions she finds herself in. weather sticking her toes in her ears, or sitting sprawled out on the floor in the splits. it's just how she prefers it. and did i mention that she loves walking around on her tip toes? adorbs. <in case you don't speak teen that's short for "adorable">
but yesterday we found out that she can also throw a ball, pretty darn hard, pretty darn far, and straight.

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and before you start thinking of me as one of those mothers who has their entire child's life planned out before their first birthday. let me just put those thoughts to rest and say that i know her hobbies and life's course is up to her, she can decide if she wants to pursue one path or another. but... as her mother it's still fun to dream.

i personally have done both of these hobbies, i loved softball up until it became fast pitch. after that, i genuinely didn't think that it was so fun anymore. and honestly, i was the first to admit that my batting score average wasn't something to brag about. and then, i decided to try dance.
i had always loved dancing, we have this huge window in the living room of our house and after dinner, when the world outside our window was dark, we would turn on the lights, crank up the tunes, put a costume on and use that big window as a mirror and boy did my neighbors get a kick out of that. seeing two little girls flailing around pretending to be spanish dancers with our flowing skirts or ballerinas in swan lake. honestly, when we are playing with my nieces we still use that window as a mirror even though my sister and i are way past the age of being silly.
my mom always had a rule that we were each allowed to have only two after school programs. piano and something else (usually a sport) that we chose. i think i did gymnastics, jr. jazz(basketball), softball, track and dance. so here's the story about my one and only ballet class. i was 15, my sister was 13 and we had enrolled in the orem city rec center's dance class. it was taught by a recent high school graduate and all you had to pay for were your costumes and ballet slippers. well, because it was our first ballet class we enrolled for the beginning dance class. as we walked into the studio we noticed that most of the girls were... 6. six years old. no joke. i think the next oldest besides us was 9. we not only were a few good years ahead of these little toddlers, but we also had quite a few inches on them as well. so, this teacher of ours had to choreograph dances for our class that worked with us two little giants in the back. don't get me wrong, i learned some moves, and had some fun, and even made fun of myself along with all the other parents at the end of the year recital but honestly, it kinda killed dance for me.
it wasn't until i met my best friends sister a few years later and was able to watch her compete in So You Think You Can Dance that i truly started to kick myself in the pants for giving up on that dream so soon. i still to this day pride myself on the fact that i can head right into the splits no matter if i've stretched before hand or what jeans i'm wearing. but, sadly, that is the one and only think i have retained from my one and only ballet class.

anyway... now that i've given you my entire life's story, i guess i will bring it back to the topic i started with and say that being a mother is so fun, watching my Bayli develop and grow and find things that she prefers to do over other things is so intriguing. i can see how easily it is for some mothers to live their dreams through their kids because i'll be the first to admit that if my daughter became a prima ballerina i would be the proudest, happiest, little cheering mother on the front row but.... i had my chance at a childhood, and now it's my daughters turn for hers. and golly sometimes i just can't wait! this is going to be so fun!