Ta-da!

Rudy is doing more than just gymnastics, you know. This year, the tiny kid sister who, for months, accompanied me to Marley's preschool for pick-up in a fluffy tutu, worn over any other outfit, regardless of weather or occasion, is now in DANCE CLASS! It is a spectacle I am privileged to observe.

Todd and I take turns bringing Toot to class because it's at the same time as Marley's gymnastics class, although I may be able to work out a switch for Marley in the winter, when I'm not coaching field hockey or lacrosse. When the team I will care most about is the Celtics. And let's get that season under control, by the way. I was counting the days until the preseason games would start, and now I've found out they've been cancelled?

In the meantime, I'll make do watching my girls shuffle-step and plie. I'll watch them lunge, tiptoe across beams, and twirl cartwheels over foam bars set up on cones. I'll watch Marley's warm-up splits and push-ups, and I'll watch Rudy race around the gym, chased by her (thankfully) amused teachers, with her arms outstretched and her smile big. When Rudy's gymnastics class learned the lunge that they should finish tricks in, with automatic smiles and their arms held straight in the air, the teachers called it the "Ta-da."

Rudy spent the rest of the class running straight through the obstacle course, skipping over the intended exercises, so that she could instead scream, "Yah-ta-da-DAH! Yah-ta-da-DAH!" over and over again. It was embarrassing and hilarious and completely awesome.