Sing and Dance?

So today E-pie had her Christmas performance at school. She was the lamb along with another little girl. Last year, I think we had given her a little bit of a hard time about why she wouldn't sing or do the hand motions during the performance because she just stood there. This year, we refused to do that again. We know she is a rather shy child so we figured giving her a hard time about it wasn't going to help anything. We told her we were excited to come and see her show. Hubby worked from home today so that he could make it to see her. We told her that if she did her singing and dancing, then we would give her a special treat. We asked her what she'd like and she told us a piece of bubble gum. Not a problem. I also told her that I would take her and C-bear to lunch at Chick-fil-a afterwards. Well, she didn't sing her songs (at least out loud- I could see her mouthing the words) and didn't do the hand motions. She was okay with not getting her gum but we got to go to Chick-fil-a. Which is a good thing since I forgot to pack her lunch thinking there wasn't time for lunch at school with the performance and the after party in her class. Good thing the teachers gave her a snack. We did tell her we were proud of her for standing up there with the rest of the kids. She could have cried and ran off the stage. Plus, she was really cute in her little lamb outfit.

my little lamb

So now we have her ballet recital to look forward to. She started last year and did a pretty good job for her first recital in the winter. Then, spring recital rolled around and the "stand and do absolutely nothing" struck. I think I gave her a pretty hard time about and I feel guilty about it now. I was not thinking about her precious little heart, I was just thinking about all the money that was spent to pay for the classes and the time spent to take her to her lessons which was not around the corner. That definitely did not help I'm sure. So this year, I have thrown my selfish desires and complaints out the window (at least as it pertains to this situation). She told me she wouldn't dance and I told her that is fine but if she wanted to, she could dance. I did offer her a treat if she did a good job and she seemed excited about that, but again, I am not going to push it.  So we will see...she has a performance early in the morning for the little ones, and then, a dress rehearsal the same day. Her actual winter recital is on Sunday when the grandparents will be viewing.

Don't get me wrong...she loves to sing and dance. She is a dancing fiend at home as she pretends that our fireplace is the stage. She knows the words to the songs that I have been singing to her since she was a little baby. She sang the entire "You're My Sunshine" to me today, and I mean the whole song not just that one verse. I am not particularly happy with the other verses but haven't taken the time to change them yet. It's quite a sad song if you know it. Even C-bear knows the words. He thinks it's funny when he knows the words as I am singing them so he breaks out into laughter after singing several words which is also pretty funny. They also know some of the words to "Baby Mine" (which is more of C-bear's song) and "Love Me Tender" (which is E-pie's song). I think she has even gotten C-bear to love to dance. He will hold her hands and dance around with her.

Maybe public performance is not in her blood. I mean, hubby and I are NOT performers. In fact, we both shy away from being the center of attention and being on stage. So who could blame her. She is good at bossing us around...wonder where she gets that from? ;) The apple doesn't fall far from the tree does it?

~ H