Twinkling Star

Two years ago I met a very special person at the annual Midwest Kidfest. Kidfest is a day at the park just for kids. Preceding the Kidfest is a Teddy Bear Parade and at the Kidfest there are all kids of kid friendly activities. Some things you will find there include the inflatable games, gross motor activities of all variety, arts and crafts, as well as special vendors who offer services for kids. Some services you will find are pediatricians, therapists, and athletic activities such as karate and dance. Which brings be back to two years ago...this is where we me Ms. Leah.

Ms. Leah is Emily's beloved dance teacher. When we decided to enroll Emily in dance she was just 2 1/2 years old! She was definitely still a baby compared to other girls in her class. Emily was not too coordinated at this time. There was no way she could catch a ball; she could barely throw one! We knew though that Emily loved music and all things girly. We thought that Emily could benefit from dance. Not only would it be fun for her but I wanted someone to expect something from her.

Emily loved dance at first, but she began crying at every drop-off shortly after we started. It was hard for me, but I was reassured by Ms. Leah that Emily did wonderfully and that she was improving. We could tell too that she was becoming more coordinated and by her first performance we knew Ms. Leah was going and amazing job with her. First recital and 9 months later Emily knew all the steps to her dances! That was amazing to us that she actually followed the routines with minimal help.

Two years later we have this amazing little dancer who wants to dance just like Ms. Leah. Emily dances in all these jerky motions trying to hold her poses just like her teacher. It's pretty funny but also shows how much of an impression this woman has left on our daughter!

Last week we learned that Ms. Leah is going to be leaving Galaxy Dance Studio and it will be taken over by two new women, one of which we saw dancing at the recital. This has been very hard information for me to digest but we have decided to keep Emily at the studio this coming fall.

Today we went to see Ms. Leah one last time. We will really miss her and her talents!!