Dancing Queen

For the whole of this year, I have been excitedly waiting until the day that Anna could start her dance classes. The day arrived this week.

Back in January, I found out that there were dance classes for children aged 2 years upwards and I immediately knew that Anna would adore it. Seeing as though Anna's favourite thing in the world is to dance and prance around all day every day (even the Forest Warden suggested that Anna could go to dance classes after she dances her way around the trees during every Forest Tot session).

The classes are called Diddi Dance and are aimed at 2 to 4 year old children. Each half term focuses on a different style of dance such as Salsa or Tap or Ballet but there is also general dancing thrown in each lesson where they dance to well-known pop songs in a non-specif genre. They are also given a variety of props to experiment with whilst dancing such as Hula Hoops, ribbons or batons.

So all year, I have been waiting with excited anticipation. To be fair, the teacher did say that Anna could start the classes as early as 18 months due to her love of dancing. However, I resisted the temptation because, although Anna might love the dancing bit, her ability to follow instructions is still lacking at times!

Recently I had heard on the grapevine that Diddi Dance classes were over-subscribed and fully booked so I decided to phone the teacher to make sure we were put on a waiting list. Fortunately for us, she still had some places remaining in her Ellesmere Port class which we could join now (there were no guarantees that they would still be available in November) so I took the plunge and so, this week, saw Anna booked on her first dance class.

Now, considering that I have been waiting all year for this class, anticipating that Anna would adore it and even getting rather excited myself (Mum's are encouraged to dance with their little ones too. Yay!!), you would think that I couldn't be too nervous about the prospect of Anna in her first dance class.

I didn't sleep a wink on Wednesday night as nerves had got a hold, fearing what would happen in this dance class that Anna was attending at 10am the next morning. I allowed my mind to run away with me. Despite all the class members being 2 to 4 years old, I had this image in my head of all these toddlers performing a perfect sequence of movements in time to the music, using their ribbons and hula hoops (think 'Fame' but with much younger kids!!). Then this image of Anna popped into my head, doing completely her own thing and going in the completely opposite direction to the others, twirling around uncontrollably and shouting Ting Tings at the top of her voice until all the children, mum's and teacher all ended up in a heap on the floor with Anna still dancing as she pirouetted out the room!

Fortunately, the reality was much different.

While waiting for the class to start, Anna decided to do her warm-up exercises and started running round and round the dance floor, spinning, twirling and doing leap frog jumps. One of the mum's turned to me and said 'She won't have any energy left for the class at this rate'.
'I wouldn't bet on it' I replied .

I wasn't wrong. As soon as the teacher started the music, Anna became even more excited and immediately started copying everything that the teacher did (which was very dramatic and exaggerated as she used to dance in West End shows etc so is a bit of a diva herself!) . For the entire 45 mins (except for the 5 minutes when they had the parachute out, which Anna has a MASSIVE phobia of. She cannot even stay in the same room as the parachute at both Diddi Dance and Jo Jingles and screams, shakes, sobs and gets hysterical, much worse than the hoover phobia ever was!)

I think the dance teacher has met her match as Anna showed her diva traits too. By the end of the class, Anna was standing next to the teacher, attempting to show all of the children how to do it! Unfortunately, the dance teacher is not as patient as the Jo Jingles teacher (strict is one word to describe her!) so didn't appreciate Anna taking over so firmly lead her back to the dance floor to the other children. I suppose that is what happens when divas get together!!!

I had 3 different mum's comment to me on how much energy Anna had and how she never stops. One even said that I must be permanently worn out if she has this much energy all the time. One look at the bags under my eyes would have probably given her confirmation of that!

However, despite the teacher's lack of appreciation for Anna's unique dance moves, Anna continued to dance away and, even after the music had stopped and everyone had gone home, Anna was still dancing to her own tune, by singing herself!

Dipsy Day

Despite my best efforts, Anna has taken a liking to the Teletubbies. It all happened because the Teletubbies programme immediately follows 'In the Night Garden' and, one day while I was on the toilet (too much information possibly!!), it came on and Anna was transfixed. Anna thinks it is hilarious and giggles so much that she has to lie down because she is laughing so hard!

Being the mean Mummy that I am, it is still a programme that I dislike (I can't see the educational value to it and think it encourages poor speech!) so quickly turn the TV off after her 'Night Garden' fix. However, her favourite CD is the C Beebies one, which we listen to in the car and it does happen to have the Teletubbies tune on it so Anna knows all the words!

After listening to the song several million times and watching the programme twice, she now knows the name of each teletubby. I didn't think there was much harm in that until yesterday.

Just so that you have a clear image in your head for the purposes of this blog post... this is a picture of the teletubby called Dipsy.

Yesterday afternoon, Anna and I are walking through the park. It is 3.30pm so we are meeting lots and lots of people as all the high school and primary school children make their way home. Being the sociable and friendly girl that Anna is, she insists that we say hello to each and every one of them. You can just imagine how thrilled I was when I saw 4 teenage boys hurtling towards us on their bikes and Anna stands directly in their path and shouts 'stop' whilst holding her hand above her head as though she is a policewoman! Thankfully, the teenagers were brilliant and screeched to a halt before I had to dive in and rescue her. They even said hello to her and one even shook her hand (to which Anna just jumped up and down with glee!) before they rode on.

So we carry on sauntering along when I see a lady coming in the opposite direction. This lady is wearing a velour tracksuit. A lime green velour tracksuit. A lime green remarkably similar to a certain teletubby.

Anna starts waving at her enthusiastically and I am none the wiser, just thinking what a wonderfully polite girl I have! As the lady gets closer, Anna starts saying Hello to which the lady, very kindly, says 'hello' back. Anna then replies with 'Hello Dipsy'.

I think I could have got away with it if we had managed to walk away at that second but, after no response, Anna turns to me and says. 'Dipsy' as she points to the lady. It is then that I pretend to look puzzled, hoping that the lady would not think anything more about it. With hindsight, I think that was a mistake because Anna could see that I looked puzzled. Therefore, to help me and make things clearer for me, Anna says 'Dipsy teletubby'... while patting the lady's tummy (which was a similar size to mine. I.e: Not small!!)

At this point, my brain was screaming to the ground.. 'open up and swallow me NOW'.

Thankfully, I think the lady was so taken with Anna 'being cute' that she didn't actually understand the teletubby reference. I hope!

For the duration of our walk, Anna and I then had an in-depth discussion (with me doing the talking and Anna ignoring me!) about the differences between a teletubby and a real human being.

I knew those Teletubbies would be trouble!

Delilah

I am truly amazed at how fast Anna is developing at the moment. She is absorbing everything around her, even when you don't realise it.

She is copying everything! If she hears an 'interesting' word off the TV or radio, she will repeat it and this happens at least 50 times a day. Tonight's word was 'baboon', which she heard on the TV and then repeated over and over.

We also have to be extremely careful with what we say. The other night, whilst eating dinner, I was talking about a certain mother, who I shall call 'Jane' for the purpose of this blog! She attends Forest Tots with her son and has a tendency to show-off about her horses and stables (completely ignoring her son while he runs off towards the pond.) I was telling James about her when suddenly Anna started saying 'snobby Jane, snobby Jane'. Oops! I now have a vision of Anna going up to this lady and saying it to her face! I will be steering Anna away from her at the next Forest Tots.

The times when I am most reminded of Anna's ability to hear everything and use it, is when there is music about. For songs that capture her imagination, she will listen intently to the song and then start singing it back to you once it has finished. I am astonished at how well she can pick up the tune, let alone the lyrics. Of course, the Ting Tings are still her firm favourite. Their first 2 singles have been rather 'shouty' and sounding similar so I figured that was the attraction. However, their new single is quite a lot slower and more 'tuneful' and she still ran over to the radio and started grinning like a Cheshire cat, dancing around as though her bum was on fire and shouting 'Ting Tings' at the top of her voice. I didn't even know it was the Tings Tings until the song ended and the DJ told me so but Anna recognised it was the Ting Tings as soon as the song started and she had never heard it before!

However, the classic example of how Anna is picking things up and repeating them comes in the form of a Tom Jones impersonation.

Each night, while I cook the tea, we listen to Chris Evans. Friday night is especially good as Mr Evans has a request show where all the songs are very up-beat and cheesy for most of the time. As part of the Friday show, he plays Delilah each week, to which we are all meant to sing along at the top of our voices. I normally refrain (I need to concentrate while cooking the tea as I find it rather stressful to cook!!).

One recent Friday, we were sat at the dining table eating our dinner, after having switched the radio off several minutes before, when suddenly Anna starts singing 'Delilah'.

'Cry, cry, cry Delilah',
'Why, why, why Delilah'.
'So before you come to la la la la' (she forgot the words at this point)

She continued to sing while wrestling peas onto her fork and scooping up the last of her salmon fishcake!!!

We didn't even realise that she had been listening that closely to the radio!!! James and I just sat there looking at Anna, open-mouthed with our forks hanging in mid-air!

For the last 3 weeks, we have had Anna singing 'Delilah' at least 5 times a day. Thankfully, I also have witnesses as most people who have seen Anna in the last 3 weeks have also had the pleasure of being entertained by Anna singing 'Delilah'. Bizarrely, every time that her Grandma Lynn phones, Anna starts singing it immediately. I think Anna thinks her Grandma Lynn is called 'Delilah' or maybe Anna thinks that Grandad Flob is Tom Jones!

I have to admit that it does sound very very cute when she sings 'Delilah' and I am not the only one to say it! Everyone says it is very sweet and Grandma Lynn says Anna sounds like a little Pixie singing!

So not only do I have to be careful with what I say now but I also have to remember to be very careful with our music selections too! For example, on my mobile phone, I have a gorgeous sounding Kelly Jones (male lead singer of the Sterophonics) singing as my ring tone so it is only a matter of time before Anna starts singing the same song at the top of her voice. I'm just not sure that Anna singing 'You sexy thing' would impress the Forest Tots (even if Kelly Jones does sound gorgeous when he sings it!). I think I will be finding a new ring tone tomorrow!

Bug Hunt

Today, in Forest Tots, we went on a bug hunt. The idea was that we would go and find some bugs in the forest and then return to make bug hats, complete with googly eyes and antennae.

Unfortunately, it was a wet day but the rain held off just long enough to do our walk and get back to the lodge. So, all dressed up in our wellies and raincoats, we set off.

It wasn't long before the 10 children (all aged 2 and 3) were jumping in the puddles. They were not even little jumps, this was full-on getting wet. The control freak in me wanted to steer Anna away to look at blades of grass or something (You would never guess that my childhood was spent living in the countryside if you look at me trying to stay clean nowadays!!). However, the sensible, fun Mummy kicked in and I remembered that 'dirt is good' and so I let her go. Anna was having a fantastic time, jumping in the water and shouting 'splash' at the top of her voice. (From the 3 previous weeks of Forest Tots, I have learnt that putting Anna in anything other than her scruffy clothes is a really silly idea. Getting Muddy seems to be the main aim of this class!).

After a while, the forest Warden, Anita, found lots of logs and so all the children raced off to watch as Anita lifted up the logs to find bugs. It was lovely to see all the children literally holding their breath while the log was picked up, watching the anticipation in their faces as they expected to see hundreds of creepy crawlies. Unfortunately, every log seemed to have nothing underneath except some old moss and broken twigs. However, undeterred, the children marched off with Anita as leader, hoping that the next log would be home to the bugs.

Well, most children followed Anita. Anna was still having an amazing time shouting 'splash' and seeking out every single puddle that was in the forest.

After walking for a good 20 minutes, we came to the last log (or the last puddle in Anna's case) and Anita picked the log up. Suddenly, I heard lots of 'wow' and 'ooh' and 'arhhhhh' as a bug was eventually found. It was a big one too! Anita told everyone that it was a beetle that was called a 'cold back' (or something that sounded like that). All the children were still and quiet as they watched Anita point to it and describe it.

At this point, Anna looked up from the puddle and finally wondered what everyone was fascinated by so ran off to join them, with me racing behind her in a desperate attempt to catch her up.

Meanwhile, all the children are still crouched down, open mouthed, gazing at this beetle scratching in the mud. Then Anna comes hurtling across and... runs over it. One flat Beetle.

It has taken the entire walk through the forest to find this beetle and Anna manages to flatten it within 5 seconds. Thankfully, the children are oblivious and thinks the beetle has gone to sleep (due to lack of movement) and the other mothers are too busy talking about horse shows, stable management and where they got their sleek riding boots from (which they have worn to Forest Tots!!). Anita, the forest warden, takes it well too. 'These things happen' she muttered.

The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful in comparison. Anna made a ladybird hat (Making a Beetle hat would have been a painful memory every time that I look at it hanging in our kitchen!). Anna adored doing it, so much so that she didn't even look twice at her biscuit because she was so busy with paint! She managed to get red paint in her hair, up her nose and smeared across her T-shirt.

We must have looked quite a sight walking back to the car at the end of the class with me clutching a paper plate smeared in red and black paint, Anna's trousers soaking wet and extremely muddy and the top half of her body, including her face, covered in red paint.

Oh well, another fun morning had by all (except the beetle)!