a dancing dress

Shawn's mom wore this sweet little dress in a portrait taken when she was about Kenna's age. I was worried that it wouldn't fit as I pulled it over her head but it buttoned up just right around her skinny little frame. It is definitely too short to wear alone but she didn't mind as that only seemed to increase it's twirlyness. She found some pink tights to warm her toes and began twirling and posing and batting her eyelashes for my camera...oh this one has discovered her own cuteness for sure. I decided to forgo the idea of a still portrait in the dress as I watched her dancing in her own happy world.

And since we've been talking books -Kenna was spinning to the music of Vivaldi, Gershwin, Tchaikovsky and others thanks to one of our new favorites, Can You Hear It? The book comes with a cd and pairs beautiful works of fine art with equally beautiful pieces of classical music. We listen for the moments when the fairies cast their spells in The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and for the gunshots in Billy the Kid. Our favorite by far is the Comic Duet for Two Cats by Gioachino Rossini. We play it over and over and the kids belt out their own opera meows -even Kate gets in on that one with two year-old gusto. They love it so much we found a performance of it to watch HERE. Check it out!