Dance With Me Mama

Shortly after Christmas, Eliza watched the Julie Andrews version of "The Sound of Music" for the first time.  And she loved, it, loved it, loved it.  The following day, she picked up the dvd case for "The Sound of Music" and said "Watch Moobie?"   We tried to pop in a little "South Pacific" for variety but Eliza made her choice clear.  She tossed the "South Pacific" case aside and picked up Julie Andrews in her nun finery, spinning atop the hills of Austria.  

And as Julie Andrews taught the Von Trapp children to sing, in the hills of Austria, she's taught my daughter to sing.  We wake up to Eliza singing "Doe a Deer" and "So Long."  She doesn't enjoy the dialogue portions of the movie, just the songs, particularly the songs that feature the children.  The other night, as I got her ready for bed, Eliza looked at me, smoothed down her pajama bottoms and said "I'm sixteen, going on sebenteen."  (In case you don't get it, Eliza hasn't mastered the V sound just yet.)

The other night, as we watched the movie for the umpteenth time, when Julie and Christopher Plummer dance the Austrian folk dance together, Eliza stood up and said "Dance with me Mama."  Grabbing onto my extended forefingers, we "waltzed" across our living room.  It looked more like a version of ring around the rosie, with the two of us spinning in a circle.  I felt like falling, I got so dizzy.  But that moment of dancing with my daughter, one of the best in my life.