To Dance, Perchance To Run Offstage Crying

So Princess Elizabeth just had the dress rehearsal for this week's dance recital. She's an old pro - this is her second year - so not only did she bust a move with her dances ("The Mickey Mouse March" for tap and the "Princess Tea Party" for ballet - how perfect is that?!), she also decided to act as director. While she was dancing.

As she's tapping and pirouetting along, she's calling out directions to all her classmates: "Brooke, go down now!", "Anna Ruth, stop crying!", "Lacey, skip that way!" Never mind that she's spending most of her time looking at her teacher in the wings calling out the steps. Apparently, she felt that even though she might need a little help remembering the routines, her classmates obviously needed more assistance than the teacher hiding backstage could adequately provide.

I guess I should be embarrassed that Princess Bossy Britches was ordering everyone around the stage, and I was (a little), but actually, it was just too dang funny for me to get very worked up about. Yes, I did have the obligatory Momspeak "concentrate on your steps and not anyone else's" conversation with her afterward. But seriously, she's five, and it was funny - and heck, I'm just happy she stayed up on stage the whole time and didn't run off sobbing hysterically like poor Anna Ruth did at the mere thought of leading the group in the skip circle.

Hey, I didn't say the Princess was a particularly good director - but she was way cuter than Steven Spielberg ever thought about being. Check out the curls that she spent all night sleeping on foam rollers to get - Martin Scorsese's got nothin' on my baby.