Dance recital

Bekah wasn't so sure the extra dance practices leading up to her recital on the 19th were worth the time ("I don't have as much time to read!"), but once she got her costume and had the dress rehearsal, she was happy and excited once more.

Last year, Rebekah wore her tiger outfit and was instructed to have her hair curly with the sides pulled up. That was a problem because her hair doesn't take curl very well. Now that I've figured out how to help her hair become/stay relatively curly (tiny-barreled curling iron turned up as high as it can go with the "turbo boost" button activated), I was hoping her class would be asked to do the same thing this year.

No such luck. She was supposed to have her hair in two braids behind the ears with the part over the left eye. Problem #1: Bekah's hair is ALWAYS parted over the right eye. When I parted it over the left eye, her hair rebelled by lying funny. Problem #2: Bekah's hair isn't long enough to just put it in two braids and have it stay. Problem #3: The obvious solution to Problem #2 would be to French braid her hair, but I'm horrible at French braiding. (I'm gonna go ahead and blame that on an older sister who refused to teach me how to do it. Sure, I've since had a couple of decades to teach myself, but it's still easier to blame Jessica than myself.)

I tried in vain to French braid it (the bottom half looked great, but the top half look atrocious), so I came up with a creative solution:

Rebekah's dance recital hair: pulled into ponytails at the top to keep the wispies in place, then braided down to the next elastic, etc. That description doesn't make any sense. Click on the picture to see it bigger if you really care.

Bekah was super-cute both at the rehearsal that morning and the recital that night. She even remembered to smile a few times. :-) 

Bekah with other girls from her class during the rehearsal. It's a heck of a lot easier to get pictures of the dance during the rehearsal when there are relatively few people there than at the recital when everybody's uncles, aunts, grandparents, friends, neighbors and acquaintances attend.

 

 

 

 Pictures shot in our front yard before driving to the Civic for the recital.

 Differences from last year: 

• Rebekah HATED the makeup and even the idea of putting it on. Last year she was excited to have makeup, but after experiencing the pain of getting mascara off, she was much more wary this year. 
• I decided it wasn't worth having Seth or I being stuck in the auditorium for the entire day to save seats for the family, so we just sat in the balcony for the recital. Turns out, you can see great from up there.
• Rather than keeping the younger girls up late to watch the whole recital and come home after the finale, I took Ana and Miri home after the little girls' dance numbers and put them to bed. Seth and Bekah came home around 9:45 (the recital didn't go quite that late, but Seth treated Rebekah to a Frosty), and I scrubbed her face and took out her hair before she crashed in bed.

 

sometimes, it's worth it

After family home evening tonight, we watched a video (see below) from a talk by President Hinckley on Mormon Messages about two young boys who, when they found the shoes of a poor man working in a field, rather than hiding the shoes and laughing at his consternation, chose to hide a silver dollar in each of his shoes and watch his reaction. When the man returned from his work in the field, he broke down and thanked the Lord for the much needed blessing.

After watching the video, Analee walked up to her room. A few minutes later, she came down the stairs with her two little fists clenched tight. "Rebekah," she asked, "what shoes are you going to wear to school tomorrow?"

Andrea and I looked at each other with our hearts full. The coins were hidden (in her sister's school binder rather than her shoes, since flip-flops don't tend to contain coinage very well), and shortly thereafter the secret was discovered, both sisters beaming. Bekah hefted Ana into her arms and gave her a kiss on the head.

Often, it's crazy. Occasionally, we wonder, "What were we thinking?" But sometimes, it's worth it.

Ana-ism #19

While we were driving home from Sam's Club, I asked Analee if she would be my hiking buddy next summer.

Ana: Are 5-year-olds big enough to go on teeter-totters?
Andrea: (Confused at the apparent change of topic:) Teeter-totters? Like, at the playground?
Ana: No, teeter-totters. The mountains.
Andrea: (Thinking for a moment ...) Oh! You mean the Tetons?

The bug play

The 1st grade classes have a tradition of putting on a bug play near the end of the school year. They invite their parents and the kindergarteners to watch it. Rebekah told us about the "auditions" they had at least six weeks ago, and was so excited to tell us that she got the part of the STINK BUG! Woohoo!

Seth and I were a little skeptical that the role was as big of an honor as Rebekah made it sound, but she explained that the stink bug was the main role of the bug play. She got to walk across the stage several times while the rest of the children shouted, "Ew!" and held their noses, and she had the most lines to memorize. And boy ... I think she had those lines memorized the day she came home from school with them.

Here's our little stink bug:

Singing with the rest of the bugs on stage.

Saying one of her three parts.

The entire cast. I couldn't believe the costumes! They had a praying mantis, butterflies, army ants, bees, a maggot, ladybugs, beetles, etc. 

Buzzing around the stage. The kids were paired up and told to buzz around their partners, but Bekah was the odd one out, so she just buzzed by herself.

Miriam, Analee (playing with Bekah's costume), Bekah and Seth (that's his hand on the video camera) following the play.

Bekah showing us her stink bug report. Each kid got to research their bug and draw a picture to go with it.

Rebekah's reading goal

Our elementary school participates in the Accelerated Reading Program. After students read books, they take comprehension tests and are awarded points based on their test scores and the length and difficulty of the books. Bekah got her first taste of AR last year in kindergarten. She started participating in it about halfway through the year and accumulated more than 50 points by the end of the year by reading picture books (worth 0.5 points apiece).
Early on this year, it was apparent that Rebekah was going to smash last year's score. She rejoiced when she reached 300 points--more points than either first grade teacher could remember any of their students getting. And as the year's last AR assembly date drew near, she kicked it into high gear. In a single day, this kid took 16 tests to reach her goal of 400 points. But by golly, she did it.

Every quarter, the school holds an assembly to celebrate reading and those students who reach milestones: 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 or more points. They show the kids' names and pictures on a PowerPoint to a gymful of rowdy students and proud parents. Then they have the students who have joined the 100, 200, 300, 400 or 500 and above point club stand up so everyone can cheer for them. Bekah enjoyed the clapping, yelling and general adulation that comes with our school's AR assemblies.

 

Rebekah sitting with her class at the front of the gym before the assembly begins.

 

 The "400 Point Club" slide. 

 Rebekah's name and picture in the slide show.

 

Rebekah standing up with all the other 400 point clubbers. Notice how young she is compared to the other kids. She was the only 1st grader to reach 400 points this year. 

Waving after the assembly.

No more preschool for Analee

Analee has, once again, attended the high school's child development/parenting class preschool program. She's a super-duper senior, having attended the last four semesters. She wasn't sure she wanted to go yet again this spring, but when her good friend (and recent move-in) Olivia showed interest in preschool, Ana jumped on board.

But no more preschool for this big girl. She attended her very last class on Thursday, and from here on out, she's a bonafide kindergartener. This girl can't wait until she gets to attend Fairview in the fall.

 

Analee and Olivia getting ready to exit the van at the high school on their last day of preschool. Miriam and Bennet (the girls' cousin whom I baby-sit) supervise the drop-off.

Another wardrobe malfunction

Apparently, Miriam has a thing for wearing other people's underthings. Today she donned her biggest sister's (clean) underwear and was parading around the house telling me about her "piddy neckEES" ("pretty necklace").

Curiosity drenched the cat

Yesterday evening, I thought my toddler was dying.

You may think I'm exaggerating. But if you had been here and heard her blood-curdling scream, you would have thought the same thing.

Seth had started the water in the tub so Miriam could take a bath ... one of her absolute most favorite things to do. She was happily sitting in the tub playing with an Ariel while I was downstairs tidying up the books and toys that seem to congregate in the middle of the living room floor throughout the day.

That's when I heard the most ear-splitting, paralyzing scream I've ever heard from my 2-year-old.

In the two seconds it takes to bound up the stairs, my mind raced. Had the water turned boiling hot? (Don't worry ... our water heater is set at a safe 110 degrees.) Had she gotten a hold of my razor? (Which is a foot or two out of her reach.)

Gratefully, Seth made it to the bathroom a split-second before me and solved the problem that turned our sweet daughter into a terrified banshee.

He disengaged the shower that Miriam had started when she, out of sheer curiosity, had played with the shower pull on the tub spout.

I'm happy to report that despite her soggy, drippy head, she was a little scared, but otherwise fine.

Bekahism #46

Bekah: I'm working on becoming a ninja, dad. I have got the "swift" part down, but I have to work on the "silent" part. Ninja's are swift and silent. I am swift, but I jump around too much to be silent. It's hard to be silent when you're jumping around all the time.

Best friends/sisters

This morning the girls barreled into our room at 7 a.m. (with Seth imploring, "Why can't you let us sleep in?!") and then back out. Seth and I groggily lounged about in bed a while longer while the big girls busied themselves downstairs. When we finally emerged, we found this on the counter:

 

It seems like Bekah has been missing her younger sister and accomplice while she's been in school.

80's flashback

When Seth and I were invited to an 80's themed surprise birthday party, I decided we were going to go all out. I did all sorts of research to find out how to transform myself. (Yes, I was born in the 80s, but I wasn't old enough to wear makeup, buy my own clothes, wear earrings or style my own hair before the decade was gone, so I wanted to make sure I could do something authentic.) Bright colors? Check! (Thank you, D.I.) Bright makeup? Check! (Thank you, big sister). Big earrings? Check! (Thank you Fred Meyer clearance sale.) Big hair? Check! (Thanks, gallon of hairspray, triple-barrel curling iron and comb for ratting.)

Don't click on this to see the larger version unless you want to have nightmares tonight. Yes, that is blue glitter on my eyelids.

Seth was a harder case. What did guys wear in the 80s? We found a vintage-y looking shirt. Did my brothers wear something similar back in the day? And what can do you to hair that's been recently buzz-cut? Our solution:

That's right, peeps. Seth sported a mohawk.

It's a shame he couldn't wear some of his honkin' big glasses from the 80s.

In this state, we went to the party. Unfortunately, of the 14 people who came, we were the only ones who altered our looks to fit the theme. Even the hostess forgot to dress up.

Rather than crawling into a hole, I toughed it out during dinner and then utilized a comb and a wet wipe to try and transform myself into something more normal looking while we traveled from the birthday boy's home to go play dodgeball at a gym full of trampolines.

So if I show up at a costume party in my normal attire, you'll know that I chickened out because of my, like, totally bogus prior experience.

Superstitious

Apparently our eldest is the superstitious sort. And the addingsoundeffectstoyourmathhomework sort.

MIri's second trip to the ER

Miri wins the award as the child needing the most medical attention. Sure, Ana outdid her older sister by ripping open her forehead and needing stitches. But Miri now has two ER visits chalked up next to her name.

The first one involved a post-op fever and infection. The second one involved a viral infection and fever.

Last Wednesday, Miri woke up with a fever. We gave her Tylenol and ibuprofen as needed. I kept an eye on her. I even called the nurse at our pediatrician's office and asked if I should bring her in because, even though it was her first day of the fever, her cousin who I baby-sit had been diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection, and I thought it might be a good idea to get her on antibiotics. But the nurse said to wait.

So I waited ... until that afternoon. Her fever shot up to 104.9, and I called the office again. This time the nurse said to bring her in. We saw the pediatrician who said she might have the flu (turns out she didn't, which we found out after the lab technician swabbed her nose ... but I swear she shoved that Q-tip up high enough to perform a frontal lobotomy), pneumonia or an infection. He prescribed amoxicillin and a steroid to help her crackling lungs, and told us to give her albuterol treatments and keep giving her Tylenol and ibuprofen.

After spending a horrible hour at Wal-mart (And why didn't you tell me you didn't have my new insurance information the FIRST TIME I spoke to you, huh?), we came home with plenty-0-medicine.

Miri doing one of her albuterol treatments. It's happy and sad at the same time that she'll sit still for these: happy because I don't have to set her in my lap and hold her hands the entire time so she won't rip the mask off her head. Sad because she's had to do it enough to know not to rip the mask off her head. She also tells you "all done" when the medicine's gone.

The next day, she seemed to do better. Her fever only got up to 102.

And then we had Friday morning. Early Friday morning.

Miri woke up at 5 a.m. Her fever was over 106. We gave her Tylenol and stripped her down for a lukewarm bath. We decided to take her in.

I was scheduled to teach FAME all day Friday. Seth had the day off for "non-denominational spring holiday" (aka Easter or Good Friday), so he took her to the ER while I waited at home and got ready for the day.

Gratefully, the fever had gone down by the time he got there. They did a chest x-ray and determined that Miri had a viral infection in her lungs and possibly a kidney infection. The doctor told Seth to keep doing what we were doing and sent them both home.

Seth got to spend his glorious day off supervising medication and "Elmo's World" consumption. I spent the day trying not to botch my playing of "Für Elise" in front of 300 students and worrying about my little girl.

Saturday her fever was slight in the morning and disappeared in the afternoon. She's still got a lingering cough and snotty nose and we're still finishing off the amoxicillin, but I hope we can safely say that this one is behind us.

Miri's first real haircut

Miriam's always been obsessed with her hair. When she was old enough to grasp, she'd reach up to her tender little head and yank out chunks of hair. I thought she had grown out of that phase long ago. ... Unfortunately, the habit has just evolved.

Now, instead of merely pulling out hair, Miriam likes to twist it around her left index finger and tie it in knots. Sometimes when she pulls her finger out, she still takes some of the hair with her. (At least she's old enough to say, "Uh-oh" and hand me the hair so I can throw it away.)

I decided to put a stop to the hair habit once and for all. So I cut her hair.

The morning of the haircut. Not only is her hair a giant mess from sleeping on it all night, but it also has a huge knot on the left side from her twisting it.

One of many knots I've had to extricate from the messy nest of hair.

Seth had given me clearance to cut it above her chin, so a few chops later, this is the 'do our 2-year-old was sporting.

Nice and short for summer. Hope the back of her neck doesn't burn too easily.

Then the little stinker proceeded to yank out the elastic from the top of her head (another annoying habit of hers). So then I cut her some bangs she she can wear her hair down and not have it in her eyes.

My life in B&W

Seth ripped this from the comics the other day and handed it to me. I didn't need any words to know what he was thinking. ... "This is the story of my life," his eyes stated. No wonder I use medication to help me sleep.