Alternate title: I am going to make a terrible stage mom.

As I may have mentioned 15,000 times or so recently, Kate discovered the world of dancing a few months ago when we went to a production of the Nutcracker. It isn't that she didn't dance before that. She's been dancing since before she could crawl. But watching a professional performance seemed to cement something in her mind, something about how you can dance and wear amazing outfits AT THE SAME TIME. And our lives have never been the same.

Thus, once we wrapped up our epic January travels, one of the first items on my list of things to do was to find Kate a dance class. This is partially self-defense. I'm 30 weeks pregnant and along with that comes a certain ... ungainliness ... that does not lend itself to a lot of dancing, especially not the kind Kate wants to do, where you spin around in a lot of circles that make me dizzy just watching. Dan is holding down the fort, but it's not really his area of expertise either. So it's basically imperative that we find Kate somewhere to get some of the dancing out of her system before she kills us.

On Saturday, we went to try out a creative movement class for two and three year olds at a local dance studio. We planned this out in secret and did not tell Kate anything about it until the morning of the class, because if we had, our day would consist of a constant loop of the following conversation:

Kate: Go dance class now?
Me: Not yet. Soon.
Fifteen-second pause ....
Kate: Go dance class now?

I don't think it will surprise anyone to hear that Kate loved it. She didn't really have the attention span for the more structured parts of the class, but I think that's expected in a toddler class, and the instructor was great about keeping things moving along and not worrying about making the kids all do the same thing. I am probably a bad mother for sitting on the sidelines and openly laughing at my child for running the wrong way, but in my defense there were other moms doing the same thing. And Dan was there to play the role of supportive parent who doesn't laugh at you, which he did quite well considering that I think it was his first dance class, too. Here's a clip of Kate obstructing traffic in the class. She's the one in the white dress.

She did eventually figure it out, and she was really proud of herself.

I think it's fair to say we'll be going back to dance class again. Especially since Kate's first words upon waking up from her nap the day we went to class were "Go dance class again?" Between the dancing and the singing, I am beginning to think I should start planning my life as a stage mom. Have I mentioned the singing? Because here is a video of Kate singing one of her original compositions at the dinner table. She sings songs constantly these days. Some of them are real songs, but a lot of them are just made up, and she sings all of them with such confidence that I sometimes think she's singing a real song that I just don't recognize. That is what happens in this video, and I want you to notice how in the middle, when I ask her what song she is singing, she ROLLS HER EYES at me and answers in total gibberish, but still manages to convey this tone of utter condescension. Like "Mother, I cannot be bothered with these trivial questions."

I am in so much trouble.