Saturday, April 30, 2011

Sam's dance competition & Blog Challenge Day 18

Random side note first. I know I posted my 37.5 wk pic in the slideshow in the previous post. But, I was curious to see what it looked like next to my 37 wk photo with Caleb. I still think I look way more enormous with Caleb (way more enormous - is that even grammatically correct?). Just look at my ankles with Caleb! I still have ankles this time (you can't see them through my pants though).

Blog Challenge Day 18: What makes me different from everyone else.

Hmm.. You know, to be honest, I don't think I've ever thought about this question. I know there are lots of things that makes me unique and different, but to pin down one thing that makes me different from everyone else? Hmm....
I think that maybe I'd have to say it's my ability to throw myself into whatever I'm doing 1,000%. It doesn't matter if it's my job or if it's something at home. When I set my mind to something I tend to take off and let it consume me. Granted, that's not always a good thing, I know. But, I think it has its benefits too.

Sam competed at the Dance Spectacular out at Sky View today. She was pretty excited to go. She didn't even give me any grief at 7:20 this morning when I got her up! Last year when she went to the Dance Spectacular she only did one dance and we didn't stay for the entire thing. This year she got to participate in the entire event since she's doing the performance dance group. At the beginning of the competition they did a drill down. This is where all the girls line up and they call out things like about face, left face, right face, attention, parade rest, etc. They ended up going by age and she was in the k-2 group. There were about 20 kids in this group and she lasted until 3rd. Both the girls that took 1st and 2nd are in her dance group and she's pretty good friends with the one that took 2nd. I was impressed at how long she lasted and how good she did. I had no idea!
She performed 4 dances. I video taped 3 of them - I was talking to her piano teacher during her first dance (the one to Tangled). I was excited to see her new hip hop dance and her dance to "It's a Hard Knock Life" from Annie. She did great and had fun. She didn't argue during her costume change and she kept her hair looking decent the entire time!
After everyone was done performing (30ish dances) they did a dance down. This is where Jenny, the owner of LaShars, taught them about 20 or so seconds of a dance. They were given a few times to practice and then they performed what they learned. They broke it down by age again this time so there were fewer girls to watch at once. She did good. I think it was the arm movement that threw her off - it was kind of complicated for her. Anyway, she didn't place but she did get one of her ribbons for participating in it as well.
The only thing that I wasn't happy about is there was a mom behind me that was the mom of one of the girls from another dance company that kept talking smack the entire time (9 am - 12:30 pm). I wanted to turn around and say, "Seriously? You're worried your 16 yr old daughter isn't going to get a trophy? Come on. That's not why they're here." I didn't though because I figured she'd have a snotty retort and then I'd just get mean. I told my father in law when we went to get Caleb that I am NOT going to be a good athletic mom. I'm just not an in the face of my child when s/he screws up, obnoxious type of person. He laughed at me. Yes, those soccer moms (and apparently dance moms) are pretty evil! It's funny because I was telling Sam about it after we left. She was like, "What? That's stupid. I thought all the girls were doing great! It doesn't matter if you get a trophy." Glad I've instilled that in her early. Let's hope she maintains that attitude!
I'm trying to upload the videos of her dances I got taped, but I don't know if it's going to work this time or not. I left it up and running for a good hour a bit ago and it still hadn't loaded!