The day I have waited for...

since I was lying on an ultra sound table 3 1/2 years ago and I heard the words, 'It's a GIRL!' ABBY'S FIRST DANCE CLASS was tonight! That's right...as soon as she turned 3 I hit the phones looking for the perfect dance studio (well, the one that picked teaches tap and ballet and she will have a recital in May and perform 2 numbers...how CUTE will that be!?). And, those of you that know me, you know that I have danced, cheered, done gymnastics my entire life, so my girls have been in tu-tu's and cheer uniforms every chance I've had since the days they were born. ha! Don't worry, I know there is a chance that one, or both, of my girls will hate these activities, and that's okay. But, while I still have the control, I will have them give it a shot! And, if they don't like it, that's perfectly fine, too! Another issue is the fact that is the first thing she has done as a big girl, as in....not with Mommy! I am a stay at home mom, so she has never been in daycare. No one keeps her except our parents, so she has never been left with a babysitter, and all of the activies we have been involved in up to his point, I go with her: storytime, gym class, parents as teachers, etc. Until they are 3, parents go! So, I was pretty nervous as to how things would play out, but we talked about it a lot and I knew it would be either perfectly fine or TOTAL meltdown.

Leotard...minus tu-tu, but still just as adorable! :)

So, are you ready for this story! haha! You should all know by now that if it involves Abby, it will never be that simple! We get there, she meets her teacher, sees the other little girls, grabs her teachers hand, waves good bye and off she goes. I sat there in the waiting room with tears in my eyes. Tears of pride, tears of sadness that she's no longer a baby! 30min. pass and nothing but a report from the owner that she is doing great, loves her teacher, Miss Sarah, etc. AWESOME! I am almost certain that this is going to be a HUGE success. Well, Miss Sarah had to leave tonight to attend a class function and another girl took over. Uh-oh! She started to get upset a little when this happened, but she came our for water break and I saw her, and while she didn't look happy, she wasn't crying or anything and by the time break was over, she was fine. Another 10min. goes by....we have ALMOST made it the whole hour when I hear her, and it isn't pretty. Here they come, carrying her out to me and she is crying! Oh, no! What do I do? She really needs this experience and through her tears she tells me that she is having fun, but she wants Miss Sarah to come back. I calm her down and the owner says I can go in with her for a min. So, in we go. I get to join in for a while, she's still upset but we make it until the end. Okay, not terrible, not good, but she made it. We go out and talk to the owner. She gives her a dance bag, I buy her some tap shoes, all is well again and she tells everyone she will see them next week. They were so nice and didn't make us pay, yet, and we are going back again next week.

We get in the car, and head to get her some dinner. I promised her nuggets if she was a big girl. We get through the drive thru, I hand her a nugget, she says it's hot, I say, 'no it's not, this is dinner, you need to eat!' She puckers up and starts to get upset again, takes one bite and.....VOMITS EVERYWHERE IN THE CAR!!! Ugh! I call Scott, sort of in a panic, hang up with him, pull over, wipe her down a bit and decide that we are close enough to home, I will just get home as soon as I can and clean her up. I called Scott back and he said, 'please tell me that you are calling back to tell me this is a bad April Fool's joke!' haha! Anyways, she seems fine after this and even asked for and ate her dinner (this will later come back to bite me in the ass, too). Now, I don't know for certain, but I pretty sure that she is not sick, and that the puking is from being so worked up. BUT, before you think, 'oh my goodness, Poor Abby, she must have been SO upset!' She truly wasn't. Those of you that have been around all of Abby's life, you know she's a puker (lucky us, huh?) There was a loooong period where I bet we cleaned up puke, at least, 3 times a week. Any texture of food that she didn't like...vomit, any coughing....vomit, crying for a few min....vomit! You get the idea. Part of her MAJOR sleep issues are as result of us never being able to let her fuss for even a min. to put herself to sleep, because if we did, we were in there cleaning up vomit. So, guess only time will tell if she is sick or just had herself worked up....I am betting on the latter! And, yes, I should have NEVER let her eat so soon after being sick because she vomited AGAIN once we got home. Sooooooo.....our evening has been spent cleaning up vomit from the car, car seat, her clothes (nothing like shaking the puke from a sweet little tu-tu..haha!), our own clothes, her little table, the kitchen floor and the bathroom!....all while still doing every night activies such as taking care of our other child, Olivia, the one that you don't even know is around most of the time. haha!

And, even with all of that, are these not the cutest little tap shoes you have ever seen!? ha!

And, yes....we will still go back next week. She wants to! She talked about it all night: how much fun she had, her tap shoes, Miss Sarah (and we were assured that Miss Sarah would be there the whole time next week and that she is her teacher for the entire semester). When I was turning the lights out tonight she said, 'can I go to dance class tomorrow?' hahaha! Only Abby!

If there is one thing I have learned as a Mom...NEVER have expectations on how a situation will go or how a child will behave/react (even the most well behaved of children have their moments). My vision of taking my first born daughter to her first dance class sure wasn't this, but that's okay....it was still special, it was still an experience and I will certainly never forget it! haha!