Dancing Queen

Today was the day of Morgan's first dance recital. Before I get into the actual recital, can I please just talk about the preparation for just a moment? There isn't much that I've experienced that is as difficult and as frustrating as trying to put mascara on an almost-five-year-old. Look up. But not that far up. Look at me. DON'T LOOK DOWN. Don't blink! But, alas we got the makeup done and the bun with the bobby pins that hurt all done and she was dressed in her itchy costume on deposited at the theater on time.

The dance was quite funny and cute. Girls going every which way, sometimes keeping time, most of the time not. Lots of exclamations of "My Mom!" and lots of correcting wrong feet. Of course, I got all teary-eyed. I have lots of fond childhood memories of dance and recitals, specifically. The best was the moment that she realized that we were sitting there in the audience. She got this huge smile and wide-eyed expression on her face and started waving.

There were two performances and she had to stay at the theater ALL day, sans nap. Difficult, but she hung in there and made it the whole way through. After the second performance, during the grand finale (and the speech that went on forever), she was going crazy up on the stage, signing all kinds of stuff to me. Yep, that's my girl, signing "I Love You" to me. How can I NOT get teary-eyed?

We rewarded her long day of dancing without a nap with dinner at her restaurant of choice (she picked Chili's) and we even let her have chocolate milk with her dinner. Yeah....we REALLY cut loose! :) Plus, it's her pre-birthday dinner. Because tomorrow? She turns five. And, as some sort of offering to the birthday gods, she decided that she would like to bathe herself, including shampoo and conditioner in the shower tonight. And she did it all. By herself. Not even an ounce of help from me. My little girl is growing up!