One of the things that I love about Caleb is his persistence. It’s also one of his qualities that can drive me crazy, but this story is about how his hard-headedness makes me proud.
Every quarter the elementary school offers many different after-school activities to choose from. The boys have participated in soccer, watercolor, basketball, hockey, swimming, puppets, gardening, etc. Caleb has been wanting to take Irish Dance for months, but the Irish Dance class is always on the same day as AWANA. Since he made a commitment to AWANA at the beginning of the year, he needed to finish what he started.
The final quarter’s activity schedule was released last month and once again Caleb was desperate to do Irish Dance. (In case you hadn’t guessed, all his girl friends take Irish Dance . . . ) I looked at the calendar and saw that there were only 3 weeks left of AWANA so I gave him the green light. We decided he could go to Irish Dance for those 3 weeks and I would come to school and walk him across the street to the church after class. Win. Win.
Camille and I came and watched a little bit of his class — my funny little boy perfectly at home surrounded by 30 girls. He doesn’t care that he’s the only boy in class. He’s more upset about the fact that I won’t buy him the special shoes and that he doesn’t have a costume/uniform like the girls do. (I was not paying 18 rial/$50 for shoes that he’ll wear for 7 classes!) The Irish Dance uniform for the boys is black pants/green t-shirt, but the girls have a special skirt/leotard. I did look all over for a plain green t-shirt, but when I couldn’t find one he had the idea of turning a shirt with a logo on it inside out. Even though he could wear his regular school clothes, he insists on changing into that green shirt before class.
Camille and I came a little early to watch the end of his third class.
Ooh, Cinderella backpack? Yes, please.
Half the class doing one of the dances. Caleb dances like an athlete — I can tell he is mentally scrolling through the combinations and attacking the different steps. It totally cracks me up.
Same dance, in pairs, so the teacher can evaluate their progress.
At the end of each class they play a dance version of red light/green light where they skip in a circle and then freeze whenever the music stops. The last one standing wins. He loves it.
I’m proud that he is so sure of himself and so confident. It’s a gift to be able to do what you want without worrying what other people think.
We made it to the church in time for the AWANA awards ceremony. The cotton candy is because it was circus themed so there was plenty of popcorn, cotton candy and clowns. She liked everything but the clowns.
