Mom Thought Her Toddler Was Just Playing. Then Something Caught Her Eye (Exclusive)
One evening, Alex Moore was playing with her 23-month-old daughter, Addy
They were being silly and listening to nursery rhymes when all of a sudden, Addy started dancing
Alex watched as her daughter slid off the bed and began doing little high-kick stompsAlex Moore and her husband, Christian, both work full-time. So after wrapping up their workdays and picking up their daughter from daycare, the North Carolina-based couple likes to wind down by laying in bed to decompress.
One evening, Christian went to make dinner while Alex stayed back to play with their 23-month-old daughter, Addy. They were being silly and listening to nursery rhymes when all of a sudden, Addy started dancing. Alex watched as her daughter slid off the bed and began doing little high-kick stomps.
"I had no idea what she was doing until she said 'cha cha??' " Alex, 31, tells PEOPLE exclusively.
Alex goes on to explain that her daughter learned the "Cha-Cha Slide" by DJ Casper at daycare. She says her teacher, Ms. Mikaila, plays the song often and has been teaching the kids the steps.
Although Ms. Mikaila had previously sent Alex videos of Addy dancing along to the "Cha-Cha Slide" at daycare, this was the first time she had seen her daughter perform some of the correct steps in person — especially the stomping and the 'hands on your knees' move.
"She was walking around stomping her feet with almost a high-kick fashion, and I kept giggling because I'd never seen her stomp like that before," Alex, a aesthetics technician, says.
In the moment, Alex pulled out her phone and recorded the sweet scene. Later, she decided to post it to TikTok, thinking, 'This is too good to not share with more people.'
But then, the video quickly went viral, amassing more than 7.4 million views and 13,000 comments.
"I knew she was demanding the cha cha slide at daycare' is in incredible statement in itself 😭," one user wrote.
"and it is educational...she already knows her left and right ✅️❤️," someone else replied.
Another person commented, "That's actually so impressive that she knows the cha cha slide at her age .. what an icon."
Reading through the comments, Alex says she couldn't help but smile.
"The kind of responses I've received from the video are the exact ones I was hoping," she says. " 'This made my day, thank you so much.' It was an added bonus to hear that my daughter could excel in a dance class, because what parent doesn't want to hear that their child has a knack for something?"
"My daughter brings me so much joy every day, so I really loved that I could do that for other people," the mom adds. "Also hearing from other daycare employees that they'll start implementing the song into their classrooms for teaching directions, and dance teachers that she has amazing skills for her age — that feedback really stood out to me the most."
Since her daughter is so young, Alex knows won't remember much from this time, but in teaching her about it in a few years, she hopes her daughter realizes that she made a lot of people smile when they felt like they couldn't.
"Addy has taught me that children truly are like flowers: when they're given a loving environment, taught things with patience and in a fun way, they can blossom into the best versions of themselves," she says. "Along with truly being able to dance your little heart out when you feel it!"
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The success of The Pitt and St. Denis demonstrate that there's an appetite for more Filipinos onscreen. 'I think what networks were afraid of was, if you get too specific, the show is not going to translate to a wider audience,' Sadorra says. 'But it's almost like the opposite of that has been true—the more specific you get, the more universal it becomes.' He adds later, 'The response of that [nurse mafia] clip that went viral, and people really loving that episode in particular, has shown us that this is really resonating with people, and it would be smart of us to keep exploring stories in that area. So I hope we get to do that for a second season.' My fingers, for one, are crossed to see more Rene and the Filipino mafia on screen in the future. I can't wait to gossip about it. Related Story
