The Monahan Family: Dance recital and one proud Momma!

On Saturday, Abby had her first dance recital. She has absolutely loved going to dance. I have been worried about how she would do during the recital, though. In case you didn't know, Abby is shy, like really shy, like the Webster's definition of shy. She always dances confidently in class, but if I stick my head in and watch her, she kind of freezes up a little. So, I had a growing concern of her completely freezing up on stage in front of tons of people. Saturday morning she had dress rehearsal. I curled her hair and put a little bit of make-up on her (note to self: don't use waterproof mascara. It's really difficult to wash off her cheeks after she rubs her eyes just seconds after the mascara was applied.) and we headed out in the snow for the rehearsal. When we arrived, and started watching the other classes doing there dances on stage, I looked over at Abby, and she looked terrified. I asked her if she was OK, and she said no. A few minutes later, it was her classes turn to go practice, and I could not get her to budge from her seat. I finally carried her up on stage, and me and the teacher tried to calm her down and get her to dance. She was just not having any of it. She ended up standing off to the side while the girls went through there dance a couple of times. Next came the professional pictures. We had some individual ones taken of her, but I wish I could have known that she was going to scowl at the camera before I ordered several of them. She also was in the class photo. It was kind of funny, because the photographer kept telling the girls to "show me your teeth" in order to get them to smile. Abby was doing some sort of growl/wide mouth smile/nose scrunch in order to "show her teeth". So I was talking over the photographer telling Abby to just smile. Hopefully, she got a decent picture but if not, I hear those photographers can work miracles with photoshop. Maybe she can "photoshop" in a happy, non grumpy Abby.

After all of this, I was feeling pretty discouraged, and had little hope that Abby would dance at the recital. I was so frustrated because I hate that one of the qualities that she got from me is my shyness. We explained that lots of Cam's family was driving out here to come see her dance, so if she wasn't going to dance, then we need to tell them not to come. (They would have been here anyways for the birthday party, but desperate times call for desperate measures.) She said she was going to dance at the recital. So my only plan was to try and keep her in a good mood. If she was at all grumpy, I knew she would not dance.

When it came time for the recital, we touched up her hair and makeup, and braved the snow/rain once again. This time, however, she seemed excited and not at all nervous or anxious. She was supposed to sit with her class at the front of the stage till it was their time to go and perform, and she gladly went and joined the other girls. At this point, I thought there was a good chance she would dance. Finally, it was her turn. And she totally rocked it!!! She was dancing and smiling and having a good ole time. I was so proud! I know how scared she was and the fact that she overcame it and danced confidently up there was so awesome. I've really wanted her to be in dance, for this very reason. To build confidence and have fun. Yay Abby! It is such an amazing feeling to watch our kids overcome obsticles, it makes my heart swell with pride.