I had a discussion w/ someone yesterday about overscheduling children. When i was growing up, I played soccer, that was it for 10 or so years. I never did dance or track or basketweaving. I'm not saying it was better that way. I'm just trying to illustrate the disparity between then and now. In the fall I will have Maddie in preschool 2 days a week. Both Greg and I want to start her in soccer( and honestly soccer is one of the cheaper activities out there for kids) I belong to a playgroup that meets once a week, and she also really really wants to take ballet. So thats 5 things she'll do every week. That feels like a a lot. As a stay at home mother, I really try to find balance in having her exposed to and involved in stimulating, educational activites vs. downtime to just be a kid, play in the backyard and paint. I'm pretty sure that is a sentence our parents never uttered. Things seemed a lot different back then.

One activity I don't think I am going to be able to refuse in the fall is ballet. For three reasons:

1. We went to her first ballet class and she LOVED it

2. I loved it so much i had tears in my eyes from the sheer cuteness and seeing how much she loved it

3.

This is a very difficult dance move called Squishing a Bug

This patented Lucy Van Pelt, toungue -out-of-side-of-the-mouth is something I've noticed she does when she is concentrating, particularly while doing physical activity

And this is her at the park the other day, yelling at a bug. Yeah, yelling at a bug to get off the tree b/c she wants to climb it.