you might be wondering...

...what happened with bella's ballet class yesterday?

oh, it was fun.

she was MEGA excited when we pulled up in the parking lot.

"is this where my class is gonna be?  huh, momma, is it?  is this where i will dance?  what's my teacher's name?"

she wore her tiny little ballet slippers - and this little pink tutu that came with a set of pajamas she got last winter - into the building.  we walked in, and there was already another little girl there with her mother. 

and suddenly, my talkative, bubbly, always-making-friends all over the place little girl became painfully shy.

which is, of course, her custom.

other little girls piled in.  there were about fifteen or so in all.  i lost count, but i do know that i probably wouldn't have wanted to be the girl in charge of this class.  that was a LOT of little black leotards.

anyway, so i take my boys and we leave to go to the park, waving as bella happily runs off into the studio with all the other bright-eyed little darlings stepping into dance for the first time.

exactly eleven minutes later, i receive a phone call.

something had happened in just over ten minutes that turned my little ballerina from this:

before.

to this:

after.  (disclaimer:  not actually bella)

no idea what that something was.

i'm thinking that somebody's little girl had to be the one to cry on the first day.  i just got lucky this time.

so, we're going to try again next week. 

i'll let you know how that goes.