Look how cute and little Olive was at her first Ballet recital in 2011! Little did I know how many buns-to-come there would be.
Her heart's grandest wish since she started dancing was to get en pointe. Those hard shoes that make your toes blister and callus and hurt? Yes. That's what she wanted. She'd make every birthday, Christmas and holiday-in-between a request for her beloved pointe shoes, as if I could magically make her ready for them.
She auditioned earlier this year, but wasn't quite ready. Her ballet instructor thought that she might be ready early next year. When I picked her up and she told me the news, she was heart-broken and I held her in my lap, just like when she was so little. We mourned together.
She spent 5 weeks doing ballet summer intensive classes. 10 to 5, Monday through Friday. Every night I would ask her if she was still enjoying it...and she was. She was happy. She was living her passion.
By the end of the summer, she had worked so hard and developed her turn-out (is that what it's called?) that her instructor deemed her ready to be en pointe. Miss Mindi called me the weekend before she told Olive to make sure we were on board as well. It was so hard to keep that to myself! She said, "You knew all weekend long?! And you didn't tell me?!"
We are looking forward to seeing her dance her solo in the Nutcracker next month as the doll. She makes me so proud.
photo credit: Mindi Mende
