Anthony waited in the car with Aubrey while Carysa came in to pick up Emily with me. Emily was so happy to see us. We stuck around and talked to Ms. Tania a little while. Emily opened up and talked to her a little bit. Ms. Tania was moving stuffed animals from the washer to the dryer and Emily saw a "big Dora" very similar to her own. Emily told Ms. Tania that she wanted it. School is selling Alea sweatshirts with the kids names on them. Emily said she wants a purple one. When we went to leave class Jonathon asked Emily for a high five. She wouldn't give him one so I did. Then he asked for a loud high five. When his mom walked him out the door, he blew us a kiss. (Later at tumble, Emily asked me for a loud high five.)
Then I went next door to pick up Emily's dance and recital videos. They finally came in. I played Emily her performances and Carysa watched too. Emily pointed and said she wasn't dancing. I asked her if it was scary standing up there in front of all those people. She said it was too scary to dance in front of all the grownups. Carysa practiced Emily's backflips and back bends with her before it was time to leave. We left early to watch Carysa do her tumbling. Grandma and I took turns between watching Anthony and Emily while Carysa stayed with Emily. I stayed with Anthony first. He is getting so good at his hip hop. I'm so proud of him.. Last week he was upset and said he didn't like it anymore and insisted he didn't learn anything. Today he said he had a good time and did his moves for all of us.
Grandma came to take my place watching Anthony and sitting with Aubrey and I went upstairs with Emily. She was sitting against the wall. I reminded her that Ms. Whitney won't touch her if she does her tumbling with Carysa. At first she didn't want to go up there. Carysa was taking her place in line. I called Carysa over and told her she had to stay with Emily and that she couldn't do it without her. Together we got Emily out on the mats. Emily insisted I stay with her, which I did for the beginning. Any time she tried to refuse to participate, I told her I was going to go downstairs and watch Anthony instead., She begged me to stay and I agreed if she did her tumbling. Each station she moved to, I would try to sneak a little further away until finally I slowly walked away and told Emily that I was going to sit with the other Mommies. She let me and went back to Carysa. After each thing Emily did ,she ran to me, gave me a hug and asked if I was proud. Emily looked like she had a lot of fun tonight. One thing I was really pleased with is when Ms. Whitney put the girls in groups, she put Emily with a little girl named Micah. Micah is very nice and she doesn't seem quite as outgoing as the other girls. Micah reached out to hold Emily's hand. Emily didn't pull her hand away like she normally does. She looked at their hands a couple times and looked happy. Delana came over and hugged Emily and told Micah that Emily was her friend and that she was shy and only talked to her. She sounded very possessive. It was so cute. By the end of class, Emily was laughing and giggling and let Ms. Whitney help her do her handstand. Ms. Whitney asked Emily if she would do the whole class next week with them and I'm pretty sure Emily said you betcha. Emily had a real breakthrough tonight. I don't know if was watching her dance recital and seeing how much fun she used to have, or maybe that Carysa helped her practice before we left. (Carysa had Emily lean back to do her back bend while she spotted her. Maybe Emily learned that since Carysa didn't let her fall that she could trust her) Or maybe it was that having Carysa there for the second week is now familiar to her and makes her more comfortable. I don't know, but whatever the reason, I am happy. I hope this is a sign of things to come.
