Category Archives: Dance Mom

patient…fine…balanced…kind

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Another weekend, another dance competition.

:::back of hand dramatically to forehead:::

Oh the life of a Dance Mom!

It can be hard sometimes. Like when the competition is being staged this weekend at UC Davis while three of the colleges here are also staging their commencement ceremonies. There is traffic, crowded hotels and at least one hotel manager who seemed to be super annoyed with the arrival of guests who want to check in and prepare for graduation ceremonies and dance competitions.

Putting on stage makeup in the hotel lobby because your room will not be ready for another couple hours, around the time you have to be at the competition ready to take the stage, is just one more thing that will annoy the hotel manager.

Whatever!

You do what you have to do and you don’t let it break your concentration.

Not at all.

And the reward for being patient and fine and balanced and kind is a platinum for your solo and a platinum for your tap duo.

How cool is that?!

Oh and this picture, that smile of my darling dancing daughter’s…I am so glad for all the orthodonture we paid for over the years for her because that smile is perfect.

Congratulations Jodie. Two dances down, four more, plus Hazel’s, to go. You’re off to a great start.

 

 

her routine

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Preparing for Hazel’s first dance competition was a bit of a struggle. Okay, fine! It was a big struggle. I mean have YOU ever put false eyelashes and rhinestones on a four year old?

There were tears. She quit. Her mommy reasoned, bargained, bribed to no avail. So Mima had to come in and have a come to Jesus talk with her…because I somehow knew what to say? Well, turns out I did because she agreed…very reluctantly…to let her mother finish the stage makeup and to dance at least that competition, that day. Of course she had fun and soon forgot how weird the eyelashes, eye makeup and rhinestones made her feel.

I told Hollie that it will get easier. At least she has one thing I never had…skill…so she won’t likely ever glue her little girl’s eyelashes shut.

AHEM!

And it was a little bit easier the second time around this weekend There were no tears, no quitting. Mommy didn’t have to reason, bargain or bribe. There were no come to Jesus talks with Mima either. Thank goodness! No this time while Mommy got her stage ready, Mima had to sit on the bathroom floor hold her hands and sing with her…the ABC song, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star…oh and Teenage Dream and That’s What Makes You Beautiful…as loud as we could.

Hey, you have your getting ready routine and Hazel has hers!

The acoustics in a hotel bathroom are amazing!

and in a flash I am back in 2001

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Oh to be 12 years younger! The things I would (and most definitely would not) do. But one can not go back in time…can they?

My darling husband early this morning ran in Dell Osso’s 2nd Annual Mud Run on the Farm. Yes, the same mud run I ran last year. He trained a little with his Krav Maga class that he takes twice a week but I won’t lie to you, I was genuinely concerned about how he would do…considering how heavily he STILL smokes (even when he often finds himself gasping for air after a coughing fit) and considering how high his cholesterol is and that study released this past week linking male patterned baldness to a higher risk of heart disease.I had a dream/nightmare last night that he collapsed while running and then I woke up…HATE when that happens! So this morning, as he headed off to run in the mud and Jodie and I headed off to another dance competition I couldn’t help but be worried.

What can I say, I sometimes often worry for nothing. It’s my nature, it’s who I am, it is a result of decades of bad things happening and my worst fears realized. But, thankfully, Bill did great completing the run and obstacles in the mud in just under an hour.

Way to go, honey!!!

So now I could exhale, relax and enjoy watching Jodie and Hazel dance. Then the phone rings…

Actually it was FaceTime…

Up pops my daughter Zoë. She’s crying. Her face is bruised and bleeding and she is crying. It seems that she was in an accident on her way to work. She crashed her skateboard.

WHAT?!

Yeah, she likes to get from point A to point B on a skateboard and yeah, without a helmet…

Mom, please…

But yes, she crashed her skateboard and hit her head, scraped up her face, chipped a tooth and broke her nose…broke her nose for now the 4th time.

OH dear glob! And people think I’m joking when I declare that she has an exhausted guardian angel who probably cringes every single time she leaves the house.

Every.

Single.

Time.

She is so lucky.

So damn lucky.

And I am perhaps another 20 years older thanks to her latest misadventure.

I might have aged greatly but this picture she sent to me while in the ER in LA took me back 12 years…and not in a good way.

I swear hours later I am just starting to breathe a little bit easier. Thank goodness for a late night run and some wine. My darling husband rocked the mud run today. My dancing daughter, Jodie and my tiny dancing grand daughter, Hazel, both are off to a great start with this weekend’s dance competition earning high awards and my daughter Zoë is home safe in LA under the watchful eye of her boyfriend…and a guardian angel who likely could use a good stiff drink right about now.

the best thing

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Passing the time in the dance studio while waiting on Jodie to finish teaching her class and Daniel to finish his hip hop class I did what I usually do.

Hello Twitter!

And while reading through my peoples tweets I came across this:

Good ol’ cousin Joe. No, we aren’t really related. Then again…perhaps…maybe…

But I digress…like I often do…Bill complains often how exhausting conversation with me can be because I go off on crazy tangents all the time.

Whatever!

Wait! What was I talking about?

Oh.

Yeah.

Cousin Joe wants to know what was the best thing that happened to me today.

I start to scroll through the answers other people share with him…

…holding new babies for the first time
…good news from the doctor, no cancer!
…hugs
…safe travels home
…band concerts
…praise from a student’s parents
…birthdays
…breakfast dates
…dinner dates
…ice cream dates
…song writing success

And then I try to think again what was the best thing that happened to me today…

I’m stumped.

No, it wasn’t a bad day or a horrible day or a dark day. It was just a day. A day where I took Jodie to school then took Daniel to school. It was a day where I sipped my coffee while watching the Cardinals take their oaths before they were to begin the papal selection process. Then I did the dishes and scrubbed the baseboards upstairs. I tried to explain to Abby why popes always seem to be really old guys; followed by a discussion of what I learned from Anatomy & Physiology. I wanted to ask her if perhaps she was reconsidering her plan to be the next E! reporter and on air personality and maybe following her mom into nursing but she had to go tanning.

Yeah.

Soon enough it was time to go pick up Jodie from school then pick up Daniel. Then there was homework and dinner prep and more homework followed by taking Daniel to hip hop class. On the way home from dance, I debated with Daniel the merits of taking a shower and washing every part of his body, including his hair.

Eleven year olds and hygiene is just too challenging…and no, it is not just a “boy thing”…trust me.

I help Daniel blow dry his hair then kiss him good night and here I am…trying to figure out what was the best thing that happened to me today.

…?…

Um…

Well my hair looked good.

There is that.

It is very important to look good when one is scrubbing baseboards, chauffering kids and working on 4th grade homework.

Too shallow?

Sorry, Cousin Joe. Today my life was boring. Perhaps THAT is the best thing about today.