Proud Moments

Tonight, I am the proudest Mom ever! Since the beginning of time, Cara-Li has been a very reserved, very quiet, very pensive little girl. Very often afraid of things or scared of trying something new. Now I was exactly like her as a child if not worse as I was incredibly shy. I know what's its like to be a prisoner within your own body. It took my until my adult life to shake my shyness and fears away. So of course, I do not want Cara-Li to be like that. Things changed somewhat when she became a big sister. The role of big sister made her feel more secure of herself. And when she started first grade at this new school that is no-nonsense, she gained yet more confidence.

A couple of weeks ago, there was talk of doing a gymnastics show for the end of year. Now, when Cara-Li is concerned, you must never use the word 'show' as it scares her to no end. When she was younger, we would talk about her Christmas show and she would not sleep for nights on end as she worried so much about it. And then on show day, she simply would not perform. So today, needless to say, I was pretty stressed due to our past experiences. And we were in the big gym with lots of people watching. OMG! Gord actually bet that she wouldn't do it. As you can see in this photo, she is not particularily thrilled.

But then it was time for her part of the show. They warmed up a bit while showing us some of their talents. And then it was the big moment. Their skit was to one of the songs from CATS and you guessed it, Cara-Li was one of the cats. They were all too cute! She was absolutely fabulous! I didn't even know she could do such perfect cartwheels until tonight. And for the grand finale, Cara-Li was pushed up to the top by some girls, you know, à la cheerleader style. Amazing! My little girl did it, did a 'show' and survived to talk about it. And she was so proud of herself. And so was her Mom!