If they're happy, that's all that matters

We've signed Diana up for many activities. She obliges and tries it out, but sometimes, she just doesn't want to do it anymore. This is what happened last time with soccer. She got burned out or something and completely lost interest. (money down the drain).
She's always loved ballet and tap though. She loves to dance. She dances in her room in the morning while she's getting ready for school, she dances in the car on the way home, she dances all over the house. But I am done with ballet and tap (for now). I need a break.
So, I signed Miss D up for Dance/Gym where the kids mix gymnastics techniques with fun, upbeat music. That's what the description says so we'll see tomorrow night if that rings true. She's looking forward to it and frankly so am I.
The class is four weeks long and after that it's on to...are you ready? Cheer. Beginning Cheer.
Diana loves cheerleaders. She wants to know why there are no cheerleaders at Daddy's games and it's the first thing she notices when we watch games on TV. "They're so pretty, Mommy!"
We went to Arco Arena on Saturday to see the NCAA Elite Eight women's basketball tournament - Stanford was playing - and of course, Diana wanted to know where the cheerleaders were and where the Stanford Tree was. Once we found both, she was OK. She couldn't take her eyes off any of the cheerleaders all night.
She didn't really show any interest in taking a picture with any of the Stanford or Xavier cheerleaders but she did want to take a picture with the Stanford Tree (we tried to chase him down after the game but with no success).
During the Stanford game, though, the Gonzaga cheerleaders arrived at the arena and sat in the section next to us. Diana was in awe. I asked her if she wanted to take a picture at halftime and she said "Yes."
So, once halftime came, I got my camera out, asked the cheerleaders if she could take a picture and they said "Of course." I apologized for her Stanford gear but they said it was OK and laughed.
I am OK with my kid being a cheerleader because as long as she is happy and active, that's all that matters. Those Division I cheerleaders are no joke. We watched the Gonzaga cheerleaders run all over the court during timeouts and at halftime of the game and they were working so hard. I was in shock. You don't see that stuff on television. I have a whole new respect for them. I always knew that at that level, they were athletes, but to see how hard they were working in such a short amount of time during timeouts, was a trip.
So, here's to a whole new adventure in cheerleading. Who knows...maybe in a couple months, Diana will be over it and we will be back to soccer.

I think I'm back...

I am not going to make any excuses about why I haven't blogged in forever - I'm busy. I am just going to blog when I can and when there is something truly worthy of shouting about.
Lately, after we get home from work and school, I have been taking Diana and Amy for a bike/walk. Diana rides her Princess bike and I put Amy in the jogger and we do three laps around the block. Mostly, it's two, but there was one day it was three laps and I was super fired up for the exercise (something else I am not doing these days).
I decided that I wanted to give Diana some variety in her workouts so I asked her yesterday if she wanted to go for a run with me after school. She said "oh yea!" I knew she would because she knows I run on the treadmill, has seen me run on the treadmill and in person and loves to run.
When we got home, we got changed, got back in the car and headed over to the track across the street for a little jog. (Matt was at home so I left Amy at home. It was too windy for her to be out).
We got to the track and did some stretches. I thought Diana would see how big the track was and immediately turn and run the other way, but it didn't happen. I asked her how many laps we should do and she said "12." I don't know where that number came up, but I thought it was funny that 12 laps equals three miles on a track. Strange and very ambitious.
"I think that's great,D. But let's just do a couple and see what happens," I replied.
She said OK and we started out. We ran the first two laps and as she slowed down on Lap 2, we decided to walk Lap 3. I told her that we would do one more lap and head home. As we approached the start of Lap 4, she wanted to keep walking but I wasn't having it. "C'mon D! Let's Go!" I cheered. I started skipping sideways for a little bit and she followed.
We eventually got back to running and she finished the lap with a big smile on her face. She ran a mile!
When we got home, I told her to tell Daddy how many laps we did and he was shocked. He said, "She really ran the whole four laps." "Well, she ran two for sure and a large portion of the fourth." He was beaming with pride.
The girl loves to run. She does pretty good on her bike too...loves to go over speed bumps. We just have to get her back in the pool and we will be secretly training her for a triathlon!