Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Last night, Lilly performed in her first dance recital! She participates in the "Mommy & Me" class at Dance Etc. every Friday morning. Because we were gone for so much of the fall we've also attended class on Wednesday afternoon, so Lilly knows the routine to "Rudolph" pretty well. However, the past couple of weeks, she has not been interested in doing the dance. Being the stage mom that I am, I've been trying to instill Rudolph into our daily routine with constant viewings of the "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" claymation movie, reindeer crafts and doing the dance before bed (which usually ends up with Brian and I doing the dance while Lilly reads books).

Well, yesterday was the big day. We started the day with breakfast and the movie and plied her with cookies and cupcakes during the day. She got a dinner of fast-food chicken nuggets (her favorite) and in the car she received a bag of M&M's. We're not above bribing our child. In the dressing area she was in AWE of the older girls and their costumes and of course she was instantly in a good mood with the application of make-up. As we walked into the auditorium she started doing her "DooDooDooDoo" which is how she says "Olivia". She recognized the "stage" from the "Olivia Acts" episode (Olivia has to play the part of the cow instead of the fairy). She had time to hang out with her friend Niska and then we were lining up. One little girl had a melt-down and thankfully her mom took her away. I've come to find that children are like dominoes, if one goes  - they all do. (babies on planes crying, kids running around in class, etc). Lilly peeked onto the stage and was mesmerized by the older girls. Then it was our turn. I say "our" bc I too had to perform. I had a few butterflies about performing and about the Bug.

She walked out onto the dark stage and asked "Where's Daddy?" Then the lights came on and she freaked out. There was a lot of "no, no, no" but after the first few lyrics of the song, she found her groove and danced away! I, on the other hand, was off on my moves - but who was really watching anyways? I'm happy to report that Lilly got over her brief stage fright, did all the moves and LOVED IT!