Buggy's Dance Recital 2012

Buggy has taken another year of dance classes. I am so glad that she has this opportunity. She loves dancing and she loves her dance teacher.  This past weekend was her dance recital. I am absolutely terrible about getting pictures of her in her recital outfits. Ugh!  She is adorable and yet, I am so worried about making sure she is ready for her number that I forget to take pictures. I had the same problem last year.

We prepped for the recital by getting mommy/daughter manicures and pedicures. Have I mentioned that I love having a girl?  I love bonding with her and spending some one on one time with her.  In a house full of boys, it's nice to be girly together.

I took her to her dress rehearsal on Friday. I have to admit that it had been stressing me out to get her to her dress rehearsal. The recital was scheduled to take place 45 minutes away from home.  Add rush hour traffic and a tornado warning and I wasn't sure if we'd make it. Thankfully, Hubby had planned to be home that Friday to give me a hand. He kept the boys while Bug and I made the trek to the dance rehearsal. I'm so glad he did. I don't know how I would have kept Mr. Bananas entertained throughout the rehearsal.

As soon as we walked into the theatre, Bug said, "A stage! I'm going to be on a stage!" She couldn't wait!  It was so cute. After I had her dressed and ready to go she said, "My sparkles! My pretty lips! You forgot my sparkles and pretty lips!"  Oh, that's right. I had forgotten her eye shadow and lip gloss. But I made sure to put it on her for the recital.  The dress rehearsal was a late night, but I had promised Buggy ice cream on the way home. She fought very hard to keep her eyes open on the 8:30pm ride back to our house.  We stopped on the way home to get ice cream. We sat in the car in the parking lot enjoying our treat and hanging out together. We talked about the recital and what to expect for the next day. Our Bug was so excited to be on stage in her pretty costumes and sparkly make up.

The next morning was busy. But we managed to get everyone out of the house on time and made it to the dance recital right on time.  We had great seats right up front and enough room for everyone. I was really pleased my parents made it this year. I was disappointed that they had missed it last year as I thought they would have really enjoyed seeing their granddaughter perform.  But they were there this year and I think they were glad they came. Bug was really glad that they were there.  She waved to us before her first number and blew kisses at the end.  While I was getting her ready for the second number she told me that she wanted me at the bottom of the stage to see her perform. She was so tickled to see us again when the stage lights came on.  The whole performance was adorable.

As stressful as it can be getting ready for the performances and deciding whether or not we can afford it, I love watching Buggy perform and I love that she loves it. We stayed with the same dance studio for the second year in a row. I really like it, however, I think I'll look again for a daytime dance class. It would just fit our schedule better. I figure I only have about 2 years (tops) of being able to put her in a daytime dance class to free up our nights. We'll see.  But I'm pretty sure that no matter what, we'll stick with dance for at least another year because she loves it so much.

Waiting with the other girls for their tap number.

Buggy loved the roses from Daddy and the boys and the flowers from Lolo and Lola

The Big Kids with Lolo and Lola
Buggy Loves her flowers :)

Almost Wordless Wednesday: A Purplicious Day

On Monday when my Hubby took my Filipino relatives to Social Security to apply for their cards, I took Bug with me for a little Mommy/Daughter time.  I took her for her first mani/pedi.  She wanted purple and loved getting her toes and fingernails painted.  FUN!  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE having a daughter for these little moments. I pray that our relationship extends into friendship as she grows up. She is definitely my best girl!

Purple with white polka dots

Results from her first pedicure

Absolutely purplicious!

Sugar and Spice: Age 2

Sugar and Spice was the theme for the baby shower my friends gave me before Bug was born.  Boy, were they right. My sweet Bug is Sugar & Spice. She keeps me on my toes, while at the same time showering me with so much love it's amazing.

Buggy always wakes up before Boogie by at least 15 minutes. Sometimes more. The other morning, she came in to my room and snuggled with me in bed. While I was holding her and she patted my face gently and said, "Mommy, I'm your best friend."  Yes, she is.  We spends so much time together, that we are best friends in the way that only a mommy and her daughter can be.  I love her squeals of delight when she sees me coming in the door after I've gone out to run an errand.  It's also amazingly sweet to watch her when Daddy comes in the door after being gone at work all day.  She squeals and runs towards the door. She gives Daddy a huge hug and chatters away about her day.  She loves to dance and show us all her new moves from dance class. She adores her big brother and she is quite protective of him.  I especially love the way she tries to help me through my contractions. When I wince she holds my hand, says, "It's okay, Mommy, I've got you" and holds my hand until the contraction is gone. She kisses my belly and then tells her baby brother that she's ready to see him and to come out.

While she is adoring, wonderful, silly, and sweet, she shows her spiciness in other ways.

Recently the poor thing has been prone to long bouts of crying.  They're not really tantrums.  She's not kicking her legs and screaming...it's just lots and lots of crying.  As my friend J. pointed out, Bug is dealing with a lot of changes right now. Even though she loves sharing a room with Boogie, we did move her out of her room and now she's sharing a room.  She's ready for potty training and she's trying to work that out with all of the changes in our schedule.  And of course, soon, she will be a big sister.  That's a lot going on.  She knows that her one-on-one time with Mama will be more limited with the arrival of her new baby brother.

I see her dealing with a lot of these changes by preferring spending more time with Daddy when he is home. I'm perfectly okay with this because I think she needs to bond with him as much as possible. I think that Boogie got a little more bonding time with Daddy when he was younger because my husband was the one to drop him off at my mom's house when she used to babysit him when I was working.

She's also very torn about showing her independence and wanting Mama to be with her as much as possible. Her crying jags often have to do with her wanting to be with me...holding my hand up the stairs, going with me from one room to another, etc. and me trying to get things done and moving quickly. She'll stop and cry and cry and cry until I come back. Then when I ask her what's going on, she says in a sad pathetic voice, "I want you to hold my hand."  She just wants some extra TLC from me.

But even though she still wants me to be beside her, she's showing her independence by saying, "no," using her selective listening skills, or just doing her own thing, even though it's completely opposite of what I want her to do.  Although this can be frustrating, it seems like her show of independence isn't as intense as Boogie's was when he was that age. I remember lots of screaming, yelling, and outright defiance that tried my patience. Maybe she's less intense, maybe I know how to handle it better, maybe she hasn't hit the big time yet, but whatever it is, at this time I'm able to handle it.

I love my sugary and spicey girl and I hope that we continue to have a good relationship. I hope that my being home with her is laying the foundation to a lifetime of bonding and love.

Pwetty Mama!

I think I have a girly-girl on my hands.  There is no doubt that Buggy is a girl. She loves purses, all sorts of purses.  Before she got a few of her own, she used to take my bag and try to haul it around the house. No small feat since my purse us usually filled to the brim with stuff.  She also used to take the camera bag and use that as her purse. Fortunately my brother bought her a cute little skirt purse (I'll have to take a picture of it) and she loved it. She carries it around everywhere. Our friend A. also bought her a cute little purse just her size and she loves to carry that around, too. She comes by it honestly as I love purses, too ;)

Her newest thing is to watch Mama put on make-up. She stands on a stool as I put on my make up in the bathroom. As I put on my eye shadow, Buggy points to her eyes, closes them and says, "Ayes, Ayes. Ayes, Mama." Then as I put on my blush she says, "Bwush, Mama. Bwush." And then when I put on my lipstick, "wips, Mama, wips." All the while pointing to the right body part and saying all of this.  After I finish, I usually take the big blush brush and swipe on her eyes and cheeks. There's very little make up on it and it makes her happy. I put Burt's Bees lip balm on her lips for "pwetty lips" and she's happy. So happy that she snatches up one of her purses, finds Daddy and bats her eyes at him and says, "Pwetty, Daddy. Pwetty." Oh, brother!