There was one very unfortunate event that took place while we were in Charleston - Mila learned that there are kids her age who are involved in competitive dance. Even worse, they do things like get dressed up like tiny mermaids and dance to the atrocity that is "Mermaid Party." It's an atrocity because it's from a Barbie movie and if you've seen a Barbie movie, you know how very bad the music from that world can be.
So bad.
Basically, Mila saw this little mermaid party and desperately wanted to join in. She went from maybe? kinda? Sort of? caring about dance to, "SISSY, WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO MAKE THE TEAM?"
That was quite the can of worms, right there. Alexis, of course, had very specific recommendations and was DELIGHTED to share them with the baby sister who she would love to have follow in her ballet-shoed footsteps.
It gets worse. Mila has been practicing all of those things every day since the whole thing went down. She's stretching and watching videos to learn how to learn choreography and allllll of the things that her sister told her to do. THIS IS ALL VERY BAD. FOR ME.
For what it's worth, I have opinions about kids Mila's age doing competitive anything. While they are positively adorable on that stage, I would prefer it be about fun and that we save the serious competition and hours and hours of practice for a little later in life. That thought was reinforced in Charleston when every single 1st place team of that age group responded in the same way to a simple question. Each time a winner was declared, the announcer would ask, "Do you know why you're up here?" Without fail, small child after small child failed to correctly answer that question. While it's adorable watching them shrug and go, "I don't know!" it's ... telling. It just doesn't have the same meaning for them to win a National Championship as a kid who has purposely worked towards that goal for the year.
ANYWAY. What I'm saying is Mila is screwed. I may give in earlier than I did with Alexis, but I ain't doing it right now. There are a lot of reasons for that, and some of them are that Mila completely lacks the focus to stay on that goal. If she manages that much for a while? Maybe I'll reconsider.
Or maybe I don't need to.
Mila has been going to summer camp. It's the same camp that Alexis went to, the one where Alexis now works. Every year they do a talent show. This year is no exception. It's a very open messy sort of calamity of a talent show in that there is almost no rehearsals, certainly no minimum amount of "talent" required to perform, and basically it's an opportunity for the kids to have fun and do something they love without regard for the actual production value. I'm in favor because obviously it's pretty great to let kids get an opportunity to perform with an audience.
Wanna guess what Mila danced to today in front of about 200 people? OF COURSE SHE DID. She went to camp yesterday, decided she wanted to have her own Mermaid Party, and talked two friends into joining her. She then (not really) choreographed some moves, conjured up costume requirements, and made it so.
That kid proudly and joyously marched to the center of that stage today and performed the bounciest dance of any dance ever in the history of life. Her co-conspirators were clearly along for the ride because they watched and mimicked Mila the whole time, which is to say basically three girls stood on stage and bounced for a few minutes.
AND WERE SO PROUD OF THEMSELVES FOR IT.
It was cute.
But it's telling and lends to a whole dilemma I'm going to need to work through. Upon advising Mila that there would be actual work involved with joining the dance team, Alexis told her sister, "You're going to have to become a good dancer."
Mila replied, "I'm already REALLY good."
She's not lacking in confidence, that's for sure.
