{"id":214,"date":"2009-04-06T17:43:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-06T17:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog2\/2009\/04\/oh-baby\/"},"modified":"2012-05-27T17:30:31","modified_gmt":"2012-05-27T21:30:31","slug":"oh-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/oh-baby\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh, Baby"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m glad that I made the decision to teach Baby Bellydance one more session this year. Just the second graders, not the kindergartners. The last class of the previous session convinced me. I had each of them perform — we called it “Nightclub” — and I was really impressed by their talent. One of them is actually good enough almost to do Open Mic night at the Middle East Club in Cambridge<\/a>. Were it appropriate. I’m not kidding. She smiled and made eye contact the whole time; she added these little kicks and head flips — I don’t know where she got all that, I don’t think I am even that expressive when I dance.<\/p>\n

Then when all the parents came upstairs to get the girls, one of the students said, “Let’s all hold hands and dance in a circle!” Imagine being so innocent and happy that you want to just hold hands and dance in a circle. And so we did. I think it was that moment when I decided I had just to do it again next session. I can’t believe how wonderful those girls are. I know I am their teacher, but I also kind of love them like daughters.<\/p>\n

Today at pick-up I ran into one of my friends, who has three little daughters. The two older girls (second grade and kindergarten) have taken my classes often. The middle one is a kindergartner and she is so adorable: dusky skin, long brown hair, mischievous eyes. She looks the way I imagine a girl of mine would look. The little trumbanik climbed up onto the bench and reached up to me, utterly confident in her assumption that I would pick her up. So I did. What a feeling, to hold an enthusiastic little child against me again. The weight, the warmth, the closeness of the sweet face. Then the baby, she’s a preschooler, barely more than a toddler, demanded her turn in my arms, so I put down the one and picked up the other; light and easy, used to being held. On my hip as if it were only yesterday that Ben, or Max, or Nat were there.<\/p>\n

I told Ned sometimes I can hardly bear it to be done with having children. I’m not too old, I say. It is his decision for the most part, not mine. This is one area where we sharply disagree. But — I also know that I have grown a whole new life since my children have become such separate individuals. And they just shine on their own, and I stand and watch, captivated, but untethered, like a boat floating in the bright comforting beam of the lighthouse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m glad that I made the decision to teach Baby Bellydance one more session this year. Just the second graders, not the kindergartners. The last class of the previous session convinced me. I had each of them perform — we called it “Nightclub” — and I was really impressed by their talent. One of them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pSTth-3s","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2806,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214\/revisions\/2806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susansenator.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}