Swim and Dance

This morning we woke up to rain. I figured the swim lessons would be cancelled for today, which was going to cause me a problem for tomorrow. But when I called, the lady who answered said "Well, we are doing the early class now, and we will do the next class on time unless we get thunder or lightning." Sure enough, Kaylee went swimming in the pouring rain. What I thought was funny about that was the two kids I heard complaining bitterly about having to swim in the rain. They didn't want to get wet. Irony. ;) I stood for 30 minutes under a giant umbrella and watched everyone swim in the rain. Meanwhile, every day there is one little 3-year-old girl there, cute as a button, but she does NOT want to be there. She screams the entire time. Thirty minutes straight. Stands at the edge of the pool and screams for/at her mom. Mom has tried everything, but this girl is holding out strong, for sure. Every single day Mom brings her back out there, and every single day Girl stands and shrieks the entire time, refusing to set so much as a toe in the water. That Mom is very patient, and spent $15 to stand by the pool every day for two weeks with her screaming child. This mother would not spend every day in that fashion. It will be interesting to see if she is back next week too or if she will attempt Plan B. :)

This evening was Kaylee's Dress Rehearsal for her ballet recital. We got there at 4:45 p.m. and we didn't leave until 8:45 p.m. UGH that was a long evening. By the time we left, Kaylee and I were both starving to death, which meant that Kaylee's head was spinning around on her shoulders as she turned into that Other, Scary Kaylee. Remind me to pack her a snack for her recital tomorrow! That girl's inner monster turns on itself and everyone around it when she goes too long without food, I tell you. I barely got her home in one piece-threw her on a seat and threw food at her and finally the real Kaylee came back. Anyway, they had to organize this and that, assign dressing rooms, test lighting and sound, and then run through the entire recital, slowly. I sat in the front row and center so I could take some pictures of her all dressed up, since typically at the recital itself you have to sit too far back to get good photos. Unfortunately, where she was for the tap number, she was blocked by another girl most of the time from my perspective. But I did get several good ballet shots. I'm way too tired to pull them off the camera and upload them tonight though. Last year Kaylee was a little wooden at her dancing, but this year you can tell she's really getting into the ballet part of it. She was very graceful and just looked really good. The tap she's still concentrating on her feet more than feeling the rhythm/music, but much better than last year. :)

Kaylee was really offended though when another mom came up and was talking to someone near us, and said that the little girls look so cute in their outfits but they aren't very good at dancing. Kaylee was a little outraged and said "she was talking about her own daughter too, Mom! That was not nice! She should be supportive!"

I still have the same problem I had last year though. I really dislike some of the music, outfit and moves that they have some of the kids doing. Having girls dancing to the "Pussycat Dolls" just does not work for me...some of the highschoolers look like they are wearing lingerie on stage, and some of the younger hip hop/modern dance girls are doing moves with a definite sexual overtone. I don't think we need to have a ten year old girl doing pelvic/hip gyrations. It bothers me. Kaylee will be leaving dance or maybe looking into the other place before her routines get that mature. I love this place in every other regard. They are all-inclusive regardless of age, size, ability, etc., and the teacher is patient, fun loving, a hard worker and a great classic dancer...but that one area is just not going to work for me coming up. Or I'll just have to keep saying "no" to the other types of dance and leave her in ballet only, where they definitely do not do hip gyrations or lingerie outfits. :) We'll see...

I have to get up early in the morning so I am going to forgo the rest of the stuff I had, most of which I'm too tired to get into anyway. I've been having trouble sleeping off and on, and it's on again since Monday. Right now it feels like maybe I can get good and sleepy though, so that's what I'm going to do!