Ready for the Limelight?

I had a dentist appointment last Wednesday. Little Miss S went with me because she had a stomach bug the night before, so she couldn't go to daycare. Thankfully my mom was able to meet us there to keep her occupied! As we sat in the waiting room, one of the office ladies said something along the lines of "She's so beautiful; she could be a child model."

I might be a *tad* biased in agreeing that she is that beautiful, BUT I'm not sure she is ready for that much limelight based on the last week of Christmas performances!

Tuesday night was her school's first ever Christmas program! We were super excited to see how she'd do. There was a whole cast of characters there to support her: my parents, my sister, my grandfather, Stephen's mom, aunt, cousin, and his mom's friend. Whew.

She was not overly thrilled to be going BACK to school Tuesday night - she didn't get that this was something different. But she sure looked cute in her white shirt and jeans (she has been on a weird bow strike lately):

 

As you can tell from the pictures, she was not sure that this was in any way a good idea! She fussed and fussed and fussed. I did convince her to go up on stage with her class for "Jingle Bells". (There are no pictures of this event because I was trying to get video - then the camera battery died. A dad said he would email me the video. Hopefully that will arrive soon!!!) We were very proud of her for staying on stage for the entire song! She did not sing, did not shake her jingle bell, but she successfully stood there!

Then it was time for the cheerleading/tumbling routine. She willingly got changed into her red pants - I was worried she would want to take off all her clothes - and she even agreed to put the red cheer bow in after I showed her the other little girls wearing theirs.

Then came getting on stage... she did follow the other girls onto the stage. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story:

Summary: she got on stage, got into line, and then began inching her way off the stage. Right after this, she had inched herself off the stage and into my lap!

She did go back up and stay on the stage for the entire finale number, so that's a plus. She hid in the corner by her teacher - I couldn't even see her and I was in the front row!

Then Saturday afternoon was the Elf Show, her dance school's Christmas extravaganza. We were supposed to do a run through at the nursing home show on Thursday, but decided that bringing a stomach bug was not the type of holiday cheer they were looking for! We had no idea what to expect from her.

She got all dressed for the Elf opening, willingly put on the shoes, and eventually even let us put the hat on her. Then we went backstage. We should have left her then I think, but the dance teacher suggested that we try taking her into the audience so she could see the stage and then bringing her back right before the opener. Between then and taking her back, she took off the hat and refused to put it back on and, of course, screamed bloody murder when we left her back stage. Here she is being held through the entire opener on the edge of the stage - at least she wasn't screaming!

She was SO happy to see me when I went backstage to pick her up and she let me change her into her Frosty costume. We spent a while in the audience until her next turn:

Doesn't she look thrilled? The directions we had were to take her backstage 3 numbers before and leave her with one of the dance teachers who's a "pro" at calming screaming children. I took her backstage talking up "Frosty" the whole way. We opened the backstage door and the crying started. I left her with one of the adults and she started SCREAMING. When I got back to our seats, Stephen asked me if that was her screaming! I was like "YUP." Right before her number we could hear lots of fussing on stage and Little Miss screaming "MY MOMMY" over and over. 

They did apparently get her calmed down to the point of not screaming/crying, but these are the shots from the performance:

But she stayed on stage the entire time! That's a win! We didn't even try to get her on stage for the closing number. We really weren't sure what to expect from a 2 1/2 year old on stage for a dance recital and really were just glad that she stayed on stage!

So all-in-all I don't think she's ready for a life on the stage just yet! But she is mastering that smiling for the camera thing :)