Shrinking violet no more...

This morning my little lady had a playdate with a handful of friends. We arrived at the restaurant, where the other kiddos were buzzing around their trays of chicken nuggets, spouting about what they did in preschool that morning and my L was completely overwhelmed. She didn't let me out of her sight, kept checking back in with me at the mommies' table and even spilled her milk because she was so out of her element. It was even hard for her to keep up with the other girls on the playground and she so wanted to play with them. On the trip home she said: "My friends were kind of crazy today."

This evening I was priming L for our other big social event for the day: Wednesday night family dinner at our church. There would be a talent show, I reminded her. L stopped in her tracks. "On a stage? In a show? I want to be in the show!" There would be lots of people watching, I warned her, and there may be a lot of other kids who have to go before you. All she heard was stage and show and she was in. This little girl lives in her leotard and tutu, so the choice of talents was easy--she would perform a ballet routine. We chose a song, she practiced for C and me on the front porch and then she wriggled into her outfit, fixed her hair and we were off. When it was FINALLY time to go on stage, our Christian education director played L's song on the stereo system (L was second to perform) and she looked at the audience, then looked at me and began to hop and plie, all with tongue stuck out in intense concentration and lots of smiles. Her two-minute performance constituted what was probably the best moment of her life thus far. I was so proud and sadly without a camera--darn it! L was amazing and not a bit nervous or shy. I do believe a star is born.