On Unplugging

I keep seeing all these articles about unplugging and being more involved and attentive to your children.

And I think that is a great idea.  A lot of people are doing like a 30 day challenge.  And I think, what a great idea.

I'd even be willing to give up my phone for use as anything other than, well, phone calls....

Except,

Well,

I use the internet to pay all my bills and I really don't want to get evicted.  Or have the water and electricity and gas turned off while I am waiting to get get evicted.

I also just became the team Mom for Peter's tball team and email is the most efficient way of communicating with everyone.

and, also, let's just be realistic:

I firmly believe that it is important to give your kids attention.  I do.  Play with them.  Talk to them.  Listen to what they have to say so that they feel they can trust you and share things with you and that their voice matters.  Take time out of each day and make it just for each of them.

But I also think it is important to teach your children to play independently by themselves and to play well with others, even their siblings, and to solve their own problems/conflict by themselves without (or with only limited) adult intervention.  (ie... me occassionaly yelling helpful suggestiongs like " STOP HITTING EACH OTHER BEFORE SOMEBODY BLEEDS OR THAT TOY YOU ARE FIGHTING OVER IS GOING TO DISAPPEAR FOREVER!!!!")

Furthermore, have any of you ever actually spent an entire day with only a 2 1/2 year old and a 4 year old to talk to?  Both of mine take ALL THE TIME.  I guess that's a blessing.  But 90% of what they say makes absolutely no sense or is unrelated to whatever it is they said right before it. Or they're begging for something. Or tattling on one another.  Or, I don't know, if it's Peter, he's probably trying his first early attempts at fart jokes.

I'd love to listen to them carefully all day long, every day.  But good heavens, I think the little bit that's left of my brain might just turn to mush and leak right out of my ears.

Cut yourself some slack.
...........

It seems like this whole unplugging thing is just another trend that's swinging 'round the "internets."  A few months ago it was eating all natural.  Then it was being honest (and admitting that NOBODY can really afford to or find the time to feed their kids ALL natural, ALL the time, for example)  Now it is this whole unplugging thing.  This month alone 2 of my most favorite and most popular Bloggers have just "Quit" for the time being.

And that's great for them.  I can't imagine what my life would be like if I had thousands (or even hundreds) of followers and if I felt actual pressure to keep writing and keep posting (for anyone other than myself or the occasional Grandparent wanting pictures.)

I know that at least once every other week something goes on Facebook that makes me want to quit that whole thing altogether.  Just delete my account and be done with it forever.  But then again I have some really really great friends that I largely keep in touch with through Facebook these days because we live far a a part.  And I don't want to lose those friendships.

It's a good reminder for all of us.  We don't need to let our electronic devices rule our lives.  We don't need to look at our addictive little smart phones or iPads or even seemingly already out of date lab tops all the time.  Facebook statuses and tweets and buzzfeed articles and pictures of the Royal Baby or Kim Kardashian's post baby body really AREN'T more interesting than the stuff our kids are doing at T ball or in dance class or at the playground.

Maybe many of us do need to put the devices away and try harder to pay attention.

But we don't need to give them all up completely either.

One of Matt's favorite sayings is "Everything in Moderation... even moderation."

Make time for the internet and the emails and the blogs and the addictive Smurf game app that you may or may not willingling admit you've been playing for over 18 months now.

Find an hour or two in the morning while the kids enjoy their favorite show.  Or perhaps an hour or 2 while they nap.  Or at night after they go to bed.

There's no need to outright quit the internet.

Just maybe make a conscious decision to pace yourself.

At least that's what I have to say about it.

Princess Dance Camp Finale

Friday morning was to be our last day of dance camp.  The teacher requested that the girls wear leotards with little skirts or shorts that morning as they were going to be having their little end of camp performance at the conclusion of their day and these would go best with their costumes.

What's that you say?  Costumes?!?  I tell you the director of the studio is just brilliant.  Each day of the week, the girl made a craft, and when all the crafts were assembled, they made up the parts of their costume for Friday's little show.  Monday the girls made little crowns, on Tuesday they made wands (or scepters,) on Wednesday they strung beads onto little necklaces and then on Thursday they made t shirts.

The shirts are overwhelmingly adorable.  She stuck foam letters spelling out each girls name to the front and then they sprayed them with squirt bottles of fabric paint.  After the shirts were dry she peeled the sticky letters off and their names were spelled out through the paint.  

Apparently our dance teacher is a Pinterest parent.  Lord help us all.  Hah.  

Anyway, so the parents all gathered back at the studio at 11:30 for their little show.  When we came in the girls were all waiting in the hallway (backstage) so they could come out one by one and make their debuts.

Keeping in mind these were 2 to 6 years, it went about as well as you'd expect.  Each girl was supposed to come out and take a seat next to the director with good posture and their little legs crossed.  She then introduced them and they were supposed to say their name, then their age and their favorite thing to do.   Finally they were supposed to stand up, give a good princess wave and then go sit down in their spots for the dance.

A few of them got it all.  One or 2 outright melted down.  A.J., who was one of the last few to come out, did everything right except she basically refused to talk.  (One of my children refused to talk?  SHOCKING!  Somebody alert the media!!)

Coming out...

Having taken her seat and remembered to cross her ankles, she started making this
"Hmm, I'm thinking"face with her hand when she was asked her name.  

And she kept right on doing it...

No matter what her teacher said.

Finally she did agree to stand and gave us the tiniest of little waves.

Then she went to her spot and waited while the last of the girls had their turns.

When she was told, she got right into her starting position.  And then when the music started, she did most of the little dance.  I was pretty impressed.  She got confused a little in the middle, and she didn't always actually hit the floor with her taps, but considering she's been at this for less than a week, well, I'm very very proud of her.

Sorry, that's a lot of pictures, but she was just so cute, I couldn't really help myself.  Just look at the perfect little curl-swirls each of her pigtails is in?  Just look at her tiny feet.  And that sweet little face.  LOVE!

Here's a video of the tap routine.  (Sorry it's low quality and blurry, downgrading it was the only way I could get it to upload.)

Once the girls finished their tapping, they sat down and changed into their ballet shoes.  

Silly.

The ballet routine was a bit of a late addition.  The camp was a smaller group of girls this year and most of them were doing so well that she decided to add the little ballet routine on Thursday.  So far as I can tell, this meant A.J. was way less familiar with it and also way less into it.

Or that she just prefers tapping (in her shiny shoes.)

Or maybe she was just done.

I'm not so sure.

Keep in mind that at least one other girl spent the performance crouching down in her spot and hiding her face and another flat out refused to participate and sat on her Dads lap.  There was also at least one other girl who completely did her own thing (randomly twirling and falling over and doing forward rolls) throughout 90% of the show.   A.J.?  Well, she rocked the tap and then sort of froze up for the ballet.  She started out well enough, in the right position and everything but then seriously just froze up.

One of the other Mom's said afterward, "At least she stood their and looked cute."  True.  Very true.

First position

About half way through the song she started to cover her ears and complain that he music was "Toooo loud!!"

Keeping in mind that there is one girl sitting in the audience, we had 5 of the 9 total girls doing the routine.  That's better than half, so call that a win.  :)

Who knew she had such sensitive ears?

I have a video of the ballet too, but since A.J. basically stands there the entire time, it isn't worth sharing here. 

So then of course everybody gathered for a few more pictures.  

Again, A.J has her hands up by her face.  Not sure what's up with that.

When pictures were over, she literally crawled across the floor to us.  

And of course she went straight to her Dad.  It was so nice that because it was Friday
(and  furlough Friday at that) he was able to finish his work for the day early and come.
(Unfortunately, in his uniform, he seemed to scare/intimidate some of the girls.)  

Oh who am I kidding?  I don't even care if he scared or intimidated anyone.  I always love to show off my man, ESPECIALLY when he's in his uniform.  You might think that after over 15 years it wouldn't have the same effect on my, but you would be wrong.  Especially when he does extra sweet stuff like pick up our cutie daughter after her dance show WHILE he's wearing said uniform.  My heart melts....  my teeth hurt, the amount of sweetness is just sickening really....

Heehee.  

Finally, before we left, we had A.J. say goodbye and thank her new dance teacher with a hug.  She's sort of making a weird face in the picture (the teacher, not A.J.) but I love this anyway.

I'm so happy to have met her.  I'm so happy that she welcomed us to her studio so freely and willingly.  But most of all, I am so happy that A.J. is doing well there.  It's about time I got her into something that's just for her and that she loves doing.

I love my Tiny Dancer, what else is there to say?

(I wonder if when she's like, 14 I'll still be calling her that?  Anyway, for now it is TRUE so I'm going to stick with it.)

Peter Starts T-ball... Again (Already??)

Thursday evening, Peter was quite pleased to have his first t-ball practice of the new season.

And, now that he's 4, it's real tball!  Not just over simplified Smart Start anymore!!

Not that they get to play on a real baseball diamond though.  I guess the league is just too big this year (and one of the diamonds is all torn up due to some construction or pipe work or something) so we are stuck playing t-ball on the soccer field again.

How odd that we play t-ball on the soccer field and yet for soccer we have always been assigned to the t-ball diamond to practice.

Anyway, this year Peter is on a team of 4 and 5 year olds but so far as I could tell, at least of the kids that made it to practice yesterday, he is the only one who's played before.  

So they started out by running the bases....

Then the coaches divided them up and practicing catching and throwing.  They mostly stuck to grounders.

That was funny actually because it meant the coach kept tossing the ball underhand towards them, so then Peter would throw it back underhand as well.  But the coach didn't want him to throw underhand, he wanted to see him throw over hand.  Poor Peter, just couldn't figure out what he was doing "wrong."  I guess he's a visual learner.  Ha.

During practice A.J. alternated between running around (away,) playing in dirt
and the quick random moments of playing with the toy she'd brought where she looked
like the most perfectly behaved child ever.

Eventually the coach set a couple of the boys off to play catch in pairs together, while he worked with some of the newer, less experienced kids.

Soon enough, it was time for some work with the bat.  The coach impressed me by first demonstrating, then doing some practice swings with each child and then letting them having a go  for real.

Peter had a hard time adjusting to the weight of a real bat (I only let him use plastic bats at home) and he kept forgetting to look at the ball, but once he got his head on, he hit it well and then took off to run the bases. 

Then he got a couple more tried on the T.  

At the end of practice the coaches gathered up all the kids to talk.  I was hanging back chatting with another parent so I missed the conversation but apparently when they asked the kids if they had anything to share, Peter started to tell everyone his life story.  He told everyone where we live and that our neighbors live there too and the name of his school and how old he is, etc.  

How nice.  

Looks like it's going to be a good season.

Yeah!  

Thursday at Princess Dance Camp

Thursday morning, A.J. chose to dress as Belle for dance camp.  

Or as she insists on calling her "Bewwa." (Bella)  

I'm not going to lie, this one had me concerned because the dress was so long, and that was even after I did my best to pin up the straps a bit.  I put her dress over tights and a leotard and made her promise if she was tripping that she'd take the dress off while she danced.  She was still wearing it when I picked her up though, so I'm assuming she found a way to work around it.

The things girls will put up with to look pretty!

When I asked her to smile so I could get a picture of her all dressed up before class she first did the pose you see above, and then she started doing side to side stretches.  Weird. 

When they got started, the teachers had the mats out and were doing some stretches.  I think they were going to work on some basic tumbling/acrobatics afterward.  

I don't know why, but I find it hysterical that A.J. managed to seat herself right down front and center.  

That day, the special activity was a visit from some local pageant queens.  

AKA... Real live princesses!

NOW CALM DOWN, our girls are not going to go all Toddlers and Tiaras.  (At least not mine.)  These were high school girls that compete in the local pageants to earn money for college.  I guess in theory they could go on to compete at the state level for Miss California and then potentially Nationally for Miss America or the like.  But in any case these girls are in it for the scholarships.  

These girls, lovely young ladies, actually, are not and were not in those pageants for little kids where their parents spray tan them and make them wear false teeth and hairpieces and the Lord knows what else, like on TV.  Theses ladies came to visit with our girls because they were/are dancers themselves and they have used that talent to win their titles.  The talked to girls about poise and posture and taught them how to introduce themselves, wave and bow.  Then they read some stories.  

Of course, I wasn't there for any of that, so the only picture I have is from the studio director's phone.  

And also, hang on for another minute, because I need to say something else about the whole Princess thing. I am not going to lie, I was hugely opposed to it.  I don't ever remember being into dress up as a little girl, and honestly don't quite get it still when little girls (even my own) want to do it today.  I also, like many women, take issue with the whole "damsel in distress" aspect of most Princess tales.  The last thing I want my daughter to learn is that she needs a man to come rescue her in times of trouble.  Or that she needs to find true love to be happy.  (Even though in my case, that is sort of exactly what happened.  Just do me a favor and don't tell Matt I just said that because first of all it sounds really cheesy and second of all, I don't need it to go to his head.)  

BUT...

So far as I can tell, the part that A.J. likes about pretending to be a Princess has nothing to do with any of that.  She just likes the pretty clothes and pretty shoes and pretty crowns and jewelry and stuff.

AND WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT?!?!?!

I mean, I'm not trying to raise a complete and total material girl, but I happen to like pretty clothes and pretty shoes and pretty crowns and jewelry and stuff too.  So if she wants to go to dance and pretend to be a princess because she is just so very fashionable, well then fine.

And also, as much as those kiddie pageants terrify me, I kind of like the idea of these teenage pageant queens coming and showing our girls that if they really truly want to become princesses they CAN.  And it won't have anything to do with getting rescued or marrying Prince Charming.  But they can win a crown if they want one by taking pride in their appearances and being well educated and learning how to speak well and dance well, etc....

Sounds kind of nice to me.

In college I was in Women's Glee Club with a girl who came in (I believe) 2nd runner up in the Miss Ohio Pageant one year.  She was an amazing singer and an awesome person and if I think about it now, I would be LUCKY to have A.J. grow up to be even a little bit like her.

Anyway.  Enough of that tangeant.  The 3 Pageant Princess posed with the all the little dancer princesses for pictures.

And then they all did their "Toddler in Tiaras" pose.  Lol.

A.J. absolutely cracks me up with that face she's making.

There was also some general leading the princesses around and making them pose for more pictures.

Here's A.J. with the teenaged volunteer dance helper.  

And then for fun, A.J. just kept right on posing for me.  I blame the tap shoes.  Apparently they hadn't had time to change out of them when the guests arrived.  A.J. seems to think her little tap shoes are the BEST things ever.  They bring out her inner Diva or something.