I'm Gonna End Up on Dance Moms

I'm not going to make any friends with the end of this post.  But first, the nice stuff:

On Friday, the Dancing Sloth and I headed to the Chicago area for another dance competition.

Before we left, I'd gone to the doctor for my still hurting back. I got some medicine that had me identifying celebrity Cheetos. I still maintain  that one looked like Bob Marley.

We got up on our own on Saturday and headed over to watch the little ones dance.  I love watching the little kids - they are so sweet and innocent - and are truly dancing because it's fun for them. You can see it in their faces.  Sure, they want a medal - they're kids - but they are dancing because they LOVE TO DANCE.  I cry every time I watch our little kids.  Go ahead, make fun of me, my dance mom friends do too, I'm used to it. ;-) This isn't to say the older kids don't love it - but they do lose an innocence after awhile - and for some, even, it's all about "winning" and that makes me sad.  I guess you get that with any activity though.  The parents get in their heads and instead of playing soccer for fun, it's all about being a star...wait, that wasn't part of my rant. (This time. ;-) )

We met one of my "lives in the computer" friends for dinner.  Every now and then I like to make a public appearance so you don't think I'm just a sarcastic bot that lives in *her* computer. That was a lot of fun and I can't wait to see her and a whole bunch of my April buds in October! Yay!

Anyway...we were lucky that several of the dancers were in the same hotel as us - this time, even one that's about Sydney's age.  She was thrilled to have someone to swim with. (I guess I"m not as fun. ;-) )

We tried to go to bed fairly early because doors opened at 6:45 and she needed to be there to be ready to dance at 7:30.  At about 2, she woke me up crying, her ear hurt.  Oh no.  She sobbed in her bed for about 10 minutes and finally I told her she could sleep with me.  Awww.  She's 13.  Those moments are few and far between, so I told myself to cherish this lack of sleep. ;-)

p.s. She did end up having both an inner and outer ear infection - and you never would have known. She danced like a champ all day.

She placed 6th on her solo this time, with a high gold score (see my previous post about what that means.)  But my proudest moment is that when one of her teammates placed higher than her (the girl she was swimming with the night before) she wasn't sad or jealous.  She nearly tackled her to give her a hug!! THAT is what being on a team is all about.


Oh, but why am I going to end up on Dance Moms?  Well, two things happened that nearly sent me over the edge.  First, the night before, at awards, some older kids from a shallremainnamelessstudio were being very rude and unsportstmanlike to our peanuts. One of them even got pushed to the ground and she hit her head.  Last night, there were the same way - even with the big kids up there to protect them.  They were really rude and kept pushing our kids. Why?  Because they wanted to sit/dance in the front row for awards. These kids were clearly old enough to know better and someone needs to teach them some manners.

Secondly, and this obviously happened before awards - one of our groups got done and were watching the next group to go on.  They had the same song, same concept, and much of the same choreography that our kids had performed earlier.  It's not a coincidence that the choreographers who taught them this dance worked with this other studio.  For now, I'll leave that choreo and company nameless, but you bet your ass that once the coaches have a chance to deal with it, I will not keep my mouth shut.  That's lazy, it's unethical, and it's just plain rude.  And that's all I'll say about that right now.

I was pretty mad by the time I left last night, but I won't let rude and inconsiderate jackholes ruin the joy of watching my kids (and these girls/boy are ALL my kids) dance.  :-)