These Shoes Were Made for Tappin'

And that's just what they do....all the time!!

I teach two dance classes on Wednesdays - the first one is Towns' creative movement class and right after that is a tap class for 7-10 year olds. After Towns is done with her class and while I'm teaching tap, she goes to the church nursery (our church has a School of Fine Arts which is who I teach dance for). The sweet woman who keeps her in the nursery was out last Wednesday so Towns had to stay in class with me, but I came armed with lots of snacks and entertainment to keep her quiet until the class was over. We talked multiple times about how she had to zip her lips during tap so she wouldn't interrupt the class, and she seemingly understood. Fast forward twenty minutes into tap class where she was standing right beside me on the dance floor keeping up with the 7 year olds and their shuffle ballchanges. And since the minute that class was over she hasn't talked about anything else and hasn't done anything else but tap. She puts them on the minute her feet hit the floor in the morning and falls asleep with them on at night. She calls all the girls in that tap class 'the tapper girls' and she's convinced she's one of them. Last night before dinner I was giving her options of what she could have and she passed everything up because 'that's not what the tapper girls eat for dinner.' In the morning, it's equally as difficult trying to find something for her to wear. She'll only wear 'what the tapper girls wear'...which is dance clothes. She's lived in a 'liptard' (leotard) and tights for a solid week. Oh, and let's not forget how I'm expected to be the teacher at all times. She doesn't want to play with her dolls or her puzzles or any of her other favorite things...she just wants to tap...and in turn that means I'm the teacher. I only hope that this is a phase. I mean, she can do a mean shuffle hop toe, and it's thrilling that she loves it as much as I always did...but I can only conduct so many tap classes in one day (without losing it)! The beauty of it all is that it makes discipline around here a breeze. She knows that if she even thinks about being sassy or disobedient the tap shoes are mine....and she's been tapping a fine line ever since!

The one thing the tap enthusiast will shed the shoes for is Halloween...she's fired up because this is going to be the best Halloween ever since Bethany will be here Friday afternoon! She's been asking since last week if it's only 30 more minutes until we leave to go pick her up. She means business when it comes to her Bet-ny! Ahhh, sisterly love...