Ever since I found out Maya was going to be a girl, I had visions of this girl-without-a-face dancing. If it sounds ridiculous, indulge me …  but truly, that’s what I thought about. Maybe because I started dancing at age three, or because I loved dance (and danced four classes a week til cheerleading and coaching demands took over in high school …) … Who knows, but thoughts of a little ballerina danced in my own head and helped carry me through a really difficult pregnancy.

I couldn’t wait to meet this little ballerina kicking in my belly.

Since we wanted to take a break from swimming lessons this winter (who wants to go outside into sub-zero temps after swimming?!), I hunted around to see what local dance studios would take two-year-olds, and the program that seemed best-suited for Maya was a Jitterbugs class at the Y — a creative expression/dance class for 18-36 month olds. A good friend and I enrolled our kids, and today was the first class.

It was awesome.

Though it took her a while to warm up, she eventually did …in typical toddler form, right before the class was over!

The thing was, it was something new … and therefore inherently intimidating. But that’s what life is about: pursuing new things and giving strange, new things a shot. Even we adults struggle with this from time to time.

When we saw her hesitation, we gave her support … holding her if she needed to be held or encouraging her to do something on her own. By the end of the class, she was rulin’ the roost! I loved watching her strut her stuff around the dance studio, chasing her friend through the play tunnel, shaking maracas, wiggling, clapping cymbals together …  she had a blast and at the end of the class said, “Bye bye dance school.”

I’m pretty sure there will be a lot of dance school in our future. We just needed to take that first step.

How about you? Do you remember being intimidated when trying something new as a child? What helped you get through it?