My Baby's Not for Show

Soluna is a dancer. It started out with a few leg kicks anytime my dad put on Louie Armstrong's "A Kiss to Build a Dream On." Like I wrote earlier, since she was 2 months old Soluna has had mama separation anxiety. She cried and cried and cried when I wasn't there and my parents or Ben's parents would try a million things to get her to relax. But usually, she just cried herself to sleep... until my Dad found a secret weapon: his MP3 player. When he played it for the first time, he thought she was having spasms, because she quieted down immediately and started kicking her legs.

For Mother's Day I asked for an iPod with speakers so that she could use it. And let me tell you... she LOVES music now. Anytime she hears a song she likes she is rocking, shaking her shoulder, throwing her hands in the air and every few days she has a new move thrown into the mix. It is the most beautiful sight to see and makes anyone around put a big smile on their face and usually gets them dancing too.

But there is one thing that we do not want to do as parents (even though we are tempted to now and then so others can smile to). We do NOT want to be those parents that are constantly asking, encouraging, pleading with their kids to perform in front of others. I think that's a recipe for disaster, for passions lost over parents needs to show-off. Usually that's way later, but I bet those kinds of things start when children are just babies. There is something so innocent and beautiful about her dancing that I want to protect it. I don't want to be that parent asking her to "Dance. Dance. Dance." when there is no music on just to show her off or make her into the baby-puppet.

My hope is that Soluna continues to love music and dancing. I hope that she has fun doing it because she loves how it feels and not because we ask her to or because she has made it a priority to impress or entertain other people. I do hope there are opportunities for folks to see her love of dancing, but I'm not going to push her out there for show. You better play some music and start dancing yourself first!