Trip to the zoo for two!

Mike took Addison to the zoo today. He's been wanting to take her for a long time now, and they were both excited to go this morning. The first animal they saw was the giant turtle. (I am sure these turtles have an actual real name, but I will call them giant turtles). Mike said these were the animals that held her attention for the longest and that she had the biggest reaction to.

They also saw lions, tigers, monkeys, and went to a petting zoo. She really liked the petting zoo.

I think this is a cute picture of her:

Apparently Addison was quick to figure out how to get closer to the animals:

I am glad they got to spend the morning together today, just the two of them. Addison thinks the world of her daddy, and he loves her even more than that. They are quite a pair :)

While I have a second

I actually have a little bit of time on my hands right now, so I thought I'd update the good ol' blog.

So, Addison has been sick. Really strange combination of symptoms, some fever, some vomiting, lots of congestion, some diarrhea. All at different times over the past two days. She seemed to be back to herself by bed time tonight. Fingers crossed she wakes up 100% tomorrow!

Some cute things Addison has been doing lately:

She is absolutely obsessed with watching one of my dancers solo on the computer. Ginger, mom to McKennah, our first place soloist (!), posted the video on facebook and Addison asks to watch all the time. "Ne-Nah? Ne-Nah? Ne-Nah?" or "Ne-Nah, Ne-Nah, Ne-Nah" in a sing-song voice. Even though it drives me absolutely nuts, I can recognize that it's pretty darn cute. Oh, and go check out the video on facebook. It really is impressive :)

She sings a lot, but right now my favorite is... and don't judge me for exposing Addison to Kiss FM music- it is rare! Anyway. Right now my favorite is "All the Single Ladies" by Beyonce. "Oh, oh, oh... oh, oh, oh..." It CRACKS me up. I can sing any part of the song any time and she will pipe in at the right time- "oh, oh, oh". I love it.

She also likes "If you're happy and you know it" and is still very keen on "The wheels on the bus". She has all of the hand gestures down now. Super cute.

She knows some of her colors! We can point to blue, yellow or purple, and 90% of the time she will correctly identify the color. Boo, yeyo, and pupu. We are definitely working on all of the colors.

When you ask her how old she is, she will proudly raise one finger and say "one". We've been trying to get her to do this for a while now and she is finally obliging.

She likes to "count", but it's always "one. one. one." Today she actually said "two"! It was really just the "t" sound, but she was definitely trying.

Of course, I could go on and on. However, Mike just started Lost. I've got to check in with Sawyer, so see you later...

Beaming with pride

This weekend was our first dance competition. I have 3 teams: 1-3 grade, 4-6 grade and 7-9 grade. Sadly, I do not have any pictures (seriously, not one!). The girls all looked so cute, and danced so well. I am just so very proud that they represented me and my studio so well. I honestly wouldn't have cared what the results were. Good thing the results were AWESOME.

1-3 grade team (junior rising stars) competed jazz and novelty
Division 1 in both dances (90 or better from all judges)
2nd place in both dances

4-6 grade team (rising stars) competed jazz, novelty and lyrical
Division 1 in all 3 dances
2nd place in novelty
Soloist McKennah Robertson (shout out to Ginger... HOLLA!) FIRST PLACE. Amazing.

7-9 grade team (Envision) this was our 1st year to have a 7-9th grade team!! competed jazz, modern and lyrical
Division 1 in Modern and Jazz
1st place in Modern and Jazz
we were one stinking point away from division 1 and 1st place in lyrical!

Again, I just am SO PROUD!

Juggling hats

I can only wear so many hats. Mommy hat, wife hat, dance teacher hat, business owner hat, friend hat, you get the idea. It is getting to be too much, and I have had to take some hats off lately in an effort to keep my life in order.

I would like to learn how to wear them all at the same time. Like a magic trick would come in handy. Ta-da! I can wear 100 hats all at once!! I can excel at everything!! But, the realistic (smart) part of me knows that this is never going to be possible. So I need to learn to accept that sometimes, I just can't do it all.

Again, the realistic (smart) part of me knows that in order for me to truly be happy with each aspect of my life, I have to devote time and energy to things individually. For me to be the best mommy I can be, I HAVE to take time every now and then to do nothing but be a mommy. Same goes for business owner. There are just some times where I have to devote everything to the business. And so on and so on with the rest of my "hats".

The above mentioned are things I know realistically. Again, the smart part of me knows these things... unfortunately that part of my brain has not been dominant lately. It seems that most days lately are made of frustration, guilt, stress, pressure, and not much fun. And before you think it, yes, I know this is NOT normal. Or good.

Maybe I shouldn't post this. I don't want anyone to worry. It seems so melodramatic, and really, truly, I am fine. Just hit a bump in the road. Really, just wondering... when will I finally get used to my life? And when will I be able to navigate it while wearing multiple (very fashionable, of course) hats?

Celine!

Well, folks, I can mark one more thing off of my "before I die" list. I saw Celine Dion in concert. Of course, a) meet Celine, b) be one of Celine's dancers and c) become best friends with Celine remain on the list. But I'm young, and have nothing but time ahead of me.

You see, Celine... Celine Dion is my favorite. Favorite, favorite, EVER. (see sidebar- "window into my soul") I was SUPPOSED to see Celine in Vegas. Mike and I even had tickets, but the show was canceled at the last minute by Celine, throat infection I think. And then we just got busier and busier, and before we knew it, she was done with her show. And I cried.

When we found out Celine was coming to San Antonio, Mom bought tickets for me, Mike, Melissa and Adam. Unfortunately Melissa and Adam couldn't make it down from Kansas, so my college roomie Rosie and her sister Stella joined us. Yes, I did say that Mike went with us. I so love him. Not only does he appreciate and like dance performances, he pretty much appreciates and wants to share with me anything that I love. I SO love him. He did say (and this made me smile and wanna hug him real tight), after he mentioned that he really didn't like Celine's music, but was looking forward to the show: "Well, all I know is, there had better be dancers." And he was totally serious. I SOOOO love him.

So, last night was just so amazing. Like, Ah. Maze. Ing. I'll spare you the details, but I will share a few pictures I snapped.

Her stage was very cool. She performed to all sides, which was nice- there really were no "bad seats". And the stage changed levels throughout the whole show, sometimes the band was below the stage, as they are in this picture, and they would sometimes shift to where they were above the stage, and the center part was even higher. The dancers (there are a few on the outer part of the stage) were so good. And the choreography, oh la.

The drama!

Now, if I could just find out when dancer auditions are for her next tour... one more thing to check off the list!

A case of the Mondays

Today started off just fine. Addison did wake up a bit earlier than I would have liked, but if I'm being honest, anything before 10:00 would have been earlier than I would have liked. She had a great breakfast, cooperated cheerfully while we got ready for school. When I dropped her off, she just walked right in, let her teacher take her coat off, and headed to her chair for snack time. She even gave me the obligatory good-bye wave; I say obligatory because I'm not sure there was much sentiment behind it... she was clearly ready to be back at school. Oh, and there was a little boy who kept saying "Addy.... Addy.... Addy". He's the boy she sat next to.

I got to work quite early, took down all of the Christmas decorations and returned phone calls, all before my students arrived. I wasn't feeling super excited about being back, but I managed to enjoy my classes this morning. I grabbed a quick lunch before picking Addison up from school. Addison was in a great mood when I picked her up, and went straight down for her nap as soon as we were home.

The plan for after nap was as follows. Addison would wake up, and we would head to the studio. I would teach class at 4:00 and since Monday is the only day I can not have her in class with me, she would be watched by Ms. Angie, a mommy who watches her for a few minutes in the waiting room until Daddy comes to pick her up. But Daddy was going to be late today.

See, here's another contribution to my soon to be realized Case of the Mondays. Go back with me, if you will, to last night...

Mike informed me that our sweet cat, Gus, had been outside. Gus shouldn't go outside, because he doesn't have his front claws, but sometimes he gets to be soooooo whiiiiinnyyyy by the door, that I will let him outside. I know that is bad of me. And I will never do it again. Because Gus got his ass kicked. Or he got his ass bit. Literally. Soooooo Mike took him to the vet today, and was going to pick Gus up before going to the studio to pick Addison up.

Now, back to the "what was supposed to happen" timeline. Yeah, that didn't happen. Instead, Addison woke up f-u-s-s-y. Simply put, she was not in the same mood as before her nap. She cried for, no joke, 45 minutes. It wasn't the kind of cry that alarmed me, I never really thought she was feeling BAD (although you never really know if a toddler is teething, do you? You can kind of chalk everything up to "well, she might be teething...") Anyway, it was the kind of needy, "don't leave me" cry. I think she could tell we were on our way out, and maybe school was a little jolting to her, and she was wanting more "mommy time". I decided not to go to work. I knew there was no way she was going to be easy for Angie, especially for longer than normal while Mike took care of Gus. Addison cuddled with me all afternoon. And then, when Daddy came home, she was super cuddly and sweet with him, too.

I just got all stressed out by all this- missing work, especially. There are certainly times that I just have to choose my family over work, and this was just one of those times. So I got into a funk.

And then Gus came home and looked like this: (warning: it's kinda gross. Only kinda, though. I promise)

Talk about a funk. Poor Gus! And it's MY fault! Ugh. I really do feel so bad.

So, what started out as a decent day, turned out to be a crappy one. I neglected work and caused pain to my buddy, Gus. hmmmph. I want to watch Texas whoop Ohio (not happening right now), eat ice cream, and pout. Hmmph.

"Okay. Sounds like a case of the Mondays"

What's next? Her own cell phone?