Twinkle, twinkle

My oldest daughter dances. She really loves it. She dances in the kitchen, and in the living room, and in the yard, and at dance class, and at community performances, and in local and regional competitions. SO, when we signed my wee youngest up for dance class at school, she was overjoyed.

But not as overjoyed as when she found out that the wee one would be performing on stage, in a dance recital. Her very first one. My oldest wanted to go, of course; she also wanted to do the hair, the make-up, the costume, the whole she-bang. So I borrowed her from her dad on Sunday, and she took charge.

Actually, funny story, I'm so glad she was available, because, during the Friday night rehearsal I got a bit of a surprise. My baby girl was doing so well, we grabbed her back-ordered costume, stripped her down and put it on her, and she was ready to go do her twinkle twinkle thang. She didn't care a whit(?) that her mom forgot her ballet shoes or the bobby pins for her hair piece. Nope, she didn't get irritated at all. She was ready to GO. At least until they called her group up and she and her dance mates were on the far side of the stage and she looked back and realized that I wasn't coming with her. She did not like at at all. "Mommy"? Mommy? Mommy? she wailed. Then she was all, "whaa, whaa, whaa," until I bounded up the steps to her rescue. (With a stern warning from one of the organizers that I should leave her with the parent helper ASAP!)

Here's the funny -- turns out, there was no parent helper for her school/class. Turns out I was the suckah that was now nominated for stuck with the job. Your kids throws a fit, you win the title of "parent helper," apparently. At least that's how it worked out for me.

They handed me that "parent helper" packet faster than I could say, "No way in hell!" And when Miss Lauren smiled at me and said, "Well, now you won't have to pay the $9 ticket fee," it took some very grown-up restraint not to say, "How about I pay you $20 to not be the parent helper?"

But Miss Lauren is possibly the cutest thing you've ever seen. She's the team captain of the San Diego Charger Girls, and incredibly sweet, and she thinks my child is cute and funny, so whatchagonna do?

You're going to silently curse all the other preschool parents who didn't volunteer, and then enlist your dance daughter to save help you. How hard can it be? It's only 8 little girls under 5 in white dresses for 2 hours.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon:

My girl to the rescue

Don't you just want to get out your charcoal pencil and draw a caricature of this profile?

I know, I know, JonBenet Ramsey totally comes to mind.



Sitting in her cover up (as the rules specified!) waiting for her 7 other dance peeps.

Here they all are. See how easily distracted they are? They are looking at the girl in red, not at me. I am definitely telling them to LOOK AT THE CAMERA!

Oh, there they go. Good girls!

Very cute, no doubt about it. The photos above are pre-performance -- seemingly hours after their parents dropped them off, but just before we got the cue to make a wee-girl-chain and head backstage. It is amazing how challenging it is to have 8 pre-school girls hold hands and walk in a forward motion. But we did it. We escorted them to the back stage door, where one of the organizers took them inside (to my great relief.) My oldest and I quickly headed to the back stage door at the other side of the stage to watch from there.

Oh, my baby girl was funny. As you can tell from the photos above that she is the shortest. She also the youngest -- the only girl who is in the 2-year-old class. But it turns out that what she lacks in height and age she makes up for in showboating.

She definitely had her own dance going on during practice on Friday, or as Miss Lauren put it when I saw her on Sunday:  "I liked her 'solo' on Friday night." Yep, and she was on her own again during the recital too, doing twirl after twirl, calling out "Hi mom!" and waving to me back stage, staring at herself in her shiny star prop instead of holding it above her head like the other girls. Honestly, I really didn't see it all, because I was laughing too hard, and because, well, I was looking at is sideways, from the stage. But she definitely got a few chuckles from the audience, and now I am forced to buy the $40 DVD to watch it head on.

But let's take a look at a few more photos. The next series is during our wait en route to the final curtain call. These completely crack me up. I mean, I don't know any of the girls well, excepting my own, but from the time we spent together these shots do give good insight into their personalities... (Oh and yes, I know there are only 7 girls now. But I did NOT lose one. Her dad came and got her. Really.)

Okay, yes, I do see the dirty knees on every single one of those girls' tights, but keeping the tights clean was not in my job description.

The one in the middle is my clear favorite

I mean, really, how can she not be?

Post performance -- my girl, the total poser. She kept asking for, "just one more picture."

Shine on, little miss C