Dolphins or Tap Shoes?

Before Corinne was born in 2010, Svea spent the pregnancy honing her helping skills.

When Corinne actually arrived, Svea ignored the entire situation for 2 weeks.

Tilt your head to the right and look at this picture.  This sums it up well:

The boys were amazed and in love, I was post partum, and Svea was in denial.

The week Corinne was born, Svea would come to the hospital and crawl in the bed with me and read to me. She taught herself to read that week.  A whole new world opened for her. And she was searching for her place...especially with this new baby in the way.

After exactly fourteen days, she noticed the new baby and fell in love with the rest of us.  Again, tilt your head to the right:

Since that very obvious escape into books and out of reality, we have watched how Svea responds to other stressful situations in her life. She's eight; the stresses are relative, of course.

This summer she decided she wanted to learn how to tap dance. 

After shuffling (ha ha) our schedules around, both Svea and Corinne ended up in a dance class on Tuesday nights. 

Corinne is now convinced that the entire world is her stage, and the mirrors and tap shoes will only allow more people to enjoy her never-ending performance.

Svea...did not enjoy tap dancing. It was not what she thought it would be.

She cried after the first class, and we spent a week analyzing and overanalyzing all of our personal parenting issues, and decided that she should give it one more try. 

Also, I had already paid for the class.

She went back, but the hour before the class started, she became wildly interested in the world of dolphins.

She started a research project, complete with a bright blue pen with fake feathers on the end, and took the project with her to dance.

Due to time constraints, she only got this far:

But a familiar pattern emerged...and if a tap class stresses her to the point of escaping to the dolphins...she probably should have some time to read and write about dolphins without the tears in the dance studio.

So we will return the shoes, give great thanks, let Corinne tap, and Svea glide through the waves of her imagination, coming up every now and then for a breath of fresh air.

We love you, Svea.