Rory's First Dance Recital

 

After being with family for so long, going back to reality was a tough pill to swallow. Not even sister matching could save us from our dark moods! Since we had the car space driving back, my mom asked me to FINALLY clean out all my childhood junk that I had left behind since moving out 10 years ago. One of the things I took back with me was my Kitchen Fairy collection. Trying to be a cool easy going mom, I picked two of the fairies that seemed the sturdiest and least likely to break and I told Rory that if she was very careful with them then these special fairies would live in her room with her. Well, this was one of my fairies by the end of the afternoon (it didn't even take a whole day!) and I remembered why I'm not a cool mom. 

To help get over our post vacation blues the Collins invited us to go to the Salt River with them. We had never been before and we all enjoyed the cold river in the morning heat. Rory picked out sea shells and used her goggles to look for other treasures the entire time. Ada liked splashing in the water. Stephen had a little adventure trying to chase Rory's lost water shoes down the river. And we were only mildly jealous of the people riding by on paddle boards. It was a lovely morning. 

Then it was time for Rory's first dance recital! I debated a lot about putting her in dance this year, but I ended up doing it because I knew she needed some kind of scheduled class time since she wasn't yet old enough for preschool and I also wanted to get the feel of the studio to decide if I would want to enroll her in their preschool program the following year. Just barely turning three in October, she was the youngest in her class by a lot and it showed. She stuck with it and in all my going back and forth about whether it was the right decision or if paying tuition was a waste, I held on to the vision of her first dance recital! And then coronavirus hit. I was so so so sad that her first recital would not be what I had been envisioning all year, but bless her little studio they did the best that they could! With only two in person classes before the big show (because really, you can only accomplish so much on zoom), her teacher tried to whip these little dancers into shape for both a tap AND ballet routine. In the end, they decided to have specific performance times for each class and parents would be able to watch from monitors set up in the lobby of the theater. Only one parent was allowed per child, but they would also live stream the performance online for family and friends. It was not ideal but it was at least something. 

For Rory's call time we were going to need to leave by 8:15, which is very early in this house, and so I tried to prep her as much as possible the night before. I did everything in my power to wear her out during the day and I had her in bed by 7 pm sharp. She spent the next three hours coming up with excuses to come out to talk to Stephen and I, sneaking toys and water into her bed, and generally just not sleeping. She finally dozed off at 11:00 pm and I knew our morning would be a tough one. After waking up early to get myself presentable I had to drag her out of bed, force her half sleeping body into tights and a costume, curl her hair,  and THEN do a full face of make up on a sleepy, cranky toddler. Doc McStuffins helped enormously, but it was still ROUGH. In the end she looked like a tiny ballerina doll and I felt like all my sweat, anger and anxiety was well spent. I also threatened her with the most dire of consequences if she were to rub her eye or lips. Being a dance mom is not for the faint of heart. 

We picked up Rebecca and Sarah, who were still scrambling to get ready themselves, and made our way to the theater. We sent the girls backstage to wait with their classes and then waited and waited and waited for it to be their turn. Thanks to some technical difficulties they were having, we were allowed to actually sit in the auditorium while they performed and it was such a wonderful little miracle. I was so proud to see her up there on that stage! She was every bit the tiny dancer on her ballet dance and it was all I could do to hold back the tears and play it cool and  then she stood there and yawned through her tap dance and I had to stop myself from laughing out loud at her. Here she is with her teacher, Miss Shelly. We went to a park afterwards to snap a few pictures of the girls together and to make up for the fact that I had missed Rory's dance pictures. 

Stephen was able to watch on the livestream while he stayed home with Ada, and I was so sad we couldn't all be there together as a family. To celebrate as a family he took us all out to Handel's!

One benefit of home church is getting to have cute matching babies without the pressure of dealing with any public tantrums. Ada only gets her pacifier at nap time but sometimes she manages to sneak it out and on during this photo session she was trying to share it with Rory- talk about sisterly love! Our meetings haven't been anything earth shattering and some weeks we definitely do better than others, but I've actually really loved our little home Sacrament meetings. I try really hard to make our house a peaceful, safe place where the spirit can be felt and I have loved feeling my efforts coming to fruition on these sabbath days at home. 

Ada is still not crawling or scooting or moving around at all, so sometimes we like to leave her places you should never put a baby, because we are only ok parents. One of the cutest of these places was the top bunk of Rory's bed, and Ada LOVED it. Perks of having an immobile little buddy. 

One of our go to quarantine activities was painting rocks, which I almost immediately regretted because it meant that Rory was always collecting rocks when we went outside and I would find them everywhere inside the house. I finally convinced her to keep her rock "collections" outside until we had a painting day. We went back to having play dates with the Bartons this month and so I let the girls paint rocks for their activity. I decided to let them use some of my old nail polishes, feeling like a genius because it meant I wouldn't have to deal with paint brushes, pouring paints, and water. Well, about ten minutes in when the fumes got really bad I realized my mistake, but by then the girls were much too enthralled to stop. The rocks turned out cute and sparkly and now I have to tell Rory every other day why we can't paint with nail polish again. 

Sometimes I find myself completely blown away by how cute Ada's little baby details are. I love her leg rolls, her double chin, her squishy little bum. I love her gummy smile that shows off her two little teefers. I love her little hands and feet that circle all around when she gets excited. I love her full body shakes and shrieks when she sees something she wants. I love the smell of her neck and the feel of her and if I could bottle this baby up I absolutely would. Instead, I'll just take pictures when I'm overwhelmed by the desire to eat her up. 

At the end of June, Rory's friend Naomi had a last minute 5th birthday party that was Fancy Nancy themed. They played games like Plain, Plain, Fancy (Duck, duck, goose), took pictures, ran around and got goody bags. Rory was in HEAVEN. I snapped these pictures of her "fanciest outfit" that she picked out and I loved that she was clearly feeling herself. 

I didn't take any pictures, but Rory did two weeks of swim lessons this month! We found a girl in our old ward that did one on one thirty minute lessons and Rory loved them. She got so much better and she now lives to show off her swimming skills. She's not quite ready to be completely floatie-less, but she swallows a lot less pool water now! Rory asks about her best friend Carlie and when she gets to go swimming at her pool again regularly. One of my favorite moments was in her very first lesson right before getting in the pool she said, "Hey guess what! I threw up in Grandma Blucina's pool!" Girl knows how to make a first impression.