First Ballet Class...and other accomplishments

This will be our Siena-centric post of the month. Yesterday was a day of celebration - first, Siena has, in her words, "finished sucking my thumb." We had challenged both she and Sterling to start that process (for Sterling it has been a few months, for Siena, we began on her birthday a month ago). It wasn't going anywhere fast, so we decided to offer them a rational deal (what, dealing on a rational level with preschoolers? I think we were in an idealistic moment, but hey, as you will read, it worked with one of them!). "Big Kids" don't suck there thumbs. But "Little Kids" do. Unfortunately, Little Kids don't get to eat any treats (sugar), so as long as our two kids were still sucking their thumbs, there would be no treats. We set two days as the sign post of self-control on the matter - two days with no thumb sucking, and they could celebrate with a special treat (ice cream, of course). It took Siena only five days of trying, and then she made up her mind, and viola! she is weaned of it. Here she is celebrating with an early morning ice cream cone (it never tasted so good!). We are so very PROUD of her!

And in other news, yesterday was also Siena's first ballet class. She was tickled pink - pink leotard, pink slippers, a pink smiley face for her "mark" on the dance floor. The teacher is a wonderful dancer, who understands not only the three to five year old mind and ability, but the parent who just wants ballet to be FUN and not about a dance recital. So today she learned first position, danced slowly and quickly, waved purple ribbons in the air, played dress up and did some coloring. It was a huge success!