Dance Recital...Priceless

C performed in her first dance recital this evening. It's been quite the undertaking, and more expensive a prospect than I truly expected. Dance lessons, costume, recital fees, DVD of the performance, t-shirt, pictures... Oh my. But tonight, it was all worth it. C's class was one of the two youngest to perform, and I thought they stole the show. The theme was "Tropical Journey" and all the groups had costumes and song choices that (sort of) fit into a water or beach idea. C's class were the Mermaids, and they were delightful. All the little girls remembered their parts, and even though I know the teachers were offstage coaching them, it wasn't obvious. Not only did the onstage portion go well, but C handled the backstage wait like a champ. They were back there for 2 hours and parents were asked not to bring any personal items...so I don't know how they were kept busy, but they were still happy when they were all done. I am so proud of her! After the recital, we followed up with a family tradition. When I was little, my sister and I took dance lessons and every year my grandparents would come from out of town to see our recital. Afterwards, they always took us for ice cream at Dairy Queen. So, we did the same. My parents came to watch the recital, and we had dinner at DQ after the show. It's neat seeing it come full circle. Here we are, getting ready and posing in her costume before the show.

You know she's a Dora addict when... (part 2)

you're singing Dora songs while you walk somewhere and SHE corrects YOU when you get the words wrong. (Also, when she insists on going back so she can hear the song again because she wants to learn the words correctly.)

You know she's a Dora addict when... (part 1)

your 3 year old daughter bugs you for hours to make ice cream, excitedly helps you make it, and but when it comes time to eat it, says "I can't eat my ice cream now...Dora needs me!" even though the episode is on "pause."

Such a Girl

C is turning into such a "girl". She has discovered jewelry, but thankfully is still happy with the child-like and homemade pieces. In fact, she really enjoys making her own bracelets and necklaces. She even paints some of her own beads! I'm really glad the weather is finally warm enough for the summer dresses we had in the closet. For some reason, all the dresses are either for really cold weather (worn with tights) or really warm weather (tanks, worn with sandals). Nothing in between. Convincing her to wear pants and shirts every day was becoming quite tiresome. Here she is in her "totally C" getup. Mouse ears, dressup skirt, necklaces, purse (with ponies, ballet shoes and toy cell phone" inside) with dressup heels. And yes, she is trying to convince Mommy to put makeup on her when Mommy does makeup in the morning. Do I stand a chance?

Do I Get a Coin?

It's a few days after the 1-year mark, but I'm celebrating one-year being soda-free. Last year at this time I decided to give up sodas, soft-drinks, colas, whatever-you-want-to-call-them. I don't really know what led to the decision, except for noticing that my then-2-year-old was trying to drink my soda and I didn't want her to start the habit yet. I'm sure there were other factors, but I don't really remember them a year later. I gave my neighbors my two 12-packs of my Coke Zero from my pantry and determined that if I was giving away that much money in soda, I was going to follow-through, by-gosh-and-by-golly! Aside from a little Ginger Ale to soothe an upset stomach, I have succeeded. I've switched to tea--both hot and iced--and drink a lot more water than I used to. I did have a sip at an event about a month ago, and ended up pouring the rest of the cup I'd been poured down the drain. The taste no longer appealed!

What's Daggy wearing?

Our big one-year mark is coming up, so F is sending packages to us to lighten his return-load. Yesterday a package of extra uniforms he isn't going to require there in the meantime arrived. I had to unpack them because the box arrived in not-the-greatest condition. C had to help me, of course... Her reaction was quite amusing.

C: Mommy, is this Daggy's box?
M: Yes, this is Daggy's.
C: What's in it?
M: Daggy's uniforms.
C: What's a uniform?
M: Come see. Mommy has to unpack it.
*C "races" Mommy to the bedroom*
*M opens the box and pulls out uniforms*
C: Oh, these are Daggy's clothes!
M: That's right, Daggy sent home some of his clothes that he doesn't need at work anymore.
C: His clothes can't be at home. He needs them at work! Or he will be naked. That's so silly!
M: No, he has some clothes at work. He just doesn't need these anymore.
C: Oh good. Daggy can't be naked at work. That would be yucky.

Busy doing blogworthy things...

Here it is, the end of February, and I've just realized the last things I posted all took place during Christmas! The past two months have kept us hopping...and then crashing. C and I are finally healthy again after 2 weeks of sharing a particularly annoying cold bug with stuffy head, headaches, fever, sore throat and cough. I am supremely thankful that for once the cold did not turn into an ear infection for little C. Before the bug knocked us down though, we were up and going full speed.

We've started going to the library for story time once a week. C sits still through the stories, but doesn't participate much (even though some of the stories are interactive; the librarian does an amazing job picking stories) until we get to the craft time. She runs to the table and claims her space, grabbing up the markers and materials, raring to go. She's also usually the last one to leave, taking as much time to "make things" as she can. "Making things" is the new theme at home as well. The last package we sent to "Daggy" 

was pretty much just her artwork. I wonder what I'm going to do with it all when he's back here and I don't have anywhere to send it. Actually, I saw a great display idea at a friend's house the other day, and I might have to borrow her brilliance. C does, however, participate very well when watching PBS

 or Disney and they have the characters or "teacher" ask the kids to do things. It's something I plan to mention to her preschool teachers next year. That's right folks, C is starting preschool in the fall. I've heard simply fantastic things from friends whose opinions I respect about the school we've chosen. 

She's learning plenty at home as well. Lately, she's mommy's little helper--wants to help mommy clean, do laundry and even cook. She knows all her capital letters and their sounds, she can count to 12 in the correct order, and even recognizes some of the numbers visually. She's also making progress in holding a writing instrument, drawing recognizable shapes lines, and coloring purposefully. Her coloring pages are less scribble-all-over and more scribble-a-specific-spot. It's really fun to watch her skills emerge.

Speaking of lessons, C's also been taking swimming lessons this spring "semester". She's already passed the Red Cross level 1 and the teachers have passed her through level 2, but her mommy hasn't. I'm not as confident in her skills in the water as her instructor seems to be, so I'm keeping her in level 2 one more month, just to give her a bit more practice with some of the skills before we go to level 3, where there are going to be some "big kids". Apparently, level 3 takes some time, and physical development to get through, and some kids don't pass it until they're 8 or 9. Call me overprotective if you want, but I'm a bit hesitant about putting my little 3 year old in with school-kids. She'll be going that route in April, but for March, I'll let her practice a bit more. 

Dance lessons seem to be following a water theme as well. C's now in an actual class for dance and will be participating in the recital in May. The recital's concept is "Under the Sea," and the costumes all follow suit. C's class will be mermaids, and while I'm quite frankly unimpressed with the costume, the girls are enjoying the idea of being Princess Ariel. I'm hopeful that the costume will look better on the girls than in the picture. 

We've also been on several outings lately. Playhouse Disney Live! came to Topeka and we had the good fortune to get some great seats. C, however, didn't sit down for much of it, she was so excited. I actually got out of the house for a ladies' outing or two. I even went to the Chris Tomlin concert with a friend. We also got fantastic seats for that one. For Valentine's day, I treated C to lunch in a restaurant (one of her favorite treats, as well as mommy's), then went to see Bob the Builder, Live! where again she didn't sit for most of the show because of the excitement, and then we built another "friend" at Build-a-Bear. Very exciting. In a great show of responsibility, when we got home she gave me three of her stuffed animals for our give-away box, saying "I don't have time to play with these anymore, Mommy." Such an aware little girl. With the unseasonably warm weather, we've also gotten to go to the park a bit and I'm impressed by how much she can do on the equipment compared to last year about this time.

Then, we got sick. I just have to say, she's been a trooper, but I'm really glad we're both healthy again and we can get back to the library, swimming, dance class, outings and "making things". .