I love this one of Abs peeking at the stage, she never tired and never wanted to leave. She just couldn't get enough of the performances. Yup, she's hooked for sure!
Well here we go! Our first experience at a national dance competition. You know, life prepares you for a lot of things but I love all the times you just didn't see fun things coming. If someone would have told me, when I was young that I would have 2 daughters and that at least one would be in the crazy world of competitive dance I would not have believed you. How we wound up with this talented driven little girl out of a nurse and a combat veteran's love for each other I'll never know! But we did. Brian and I have learned to roll with this crazy life God's given us together and we are loving the ups, not the downs so much but we've learned from them and it's grown us up into who we are. This week was one of those good times together and now as parents to these wonderful 2 little girls.
We went to Myrtle Beach on this latest adventure as a whole family this time around. Brian was finally able to slip away from his job and accompany us on this last event of the season. Mom was able to come be a part of it all too and we all 5 had a blast of a time. The weather stormed and poured the first 4 solid days so that made having to be stuck indoors the week of July 4th at the beach much more tolerable. She competed on Tuesday and then was just taking classes for the rest of the week. I was so proud of her.
This world is huge, & we are learning more and more every day what we've gotten ourselves in to. She amazes us how as young and physically tiny she is how strong and mighty she holds that head high when she's around the dance world. She walked into those massive ballrooms fearlessly to take classes sometimes with kids twice her age and 3x her size! She had 2 low points in the classes for the week which I thought was pretty good since we had no idea what to expect. Once when a very large older male teenager entered her hip hop class she clammed up and showed her age in fear but overcame her apprehensions when our precious older dancers from our school took her by the hand to dance with her in the class. In no time she forgot that big scary boy and danced her heart out! I laughed out loud and her hip hop moves and was surprised when the teacher used a Christian rap song for the kids to dance to. Who knew at a secular competition!? How awesome!
And the second time, at the last exhausting 4th class of the week she absolutely could not carry on another tiring step with an insanely fast professional choreographer and keep up with the senior dancers beside her. She held her own for 20 min or so but Abigail doesn't like things that make her know her own weaknesses. And this class was way over her head. It's tough to know as a mom, and even more as a mom of a child involved in a fast paced competitive world when do you push and when do you let them be the tired 7 year old little girl they are and be done. I took her out of the class in my arms and proceeded to brag and praise her on how, at only her first year in this dance company she had amazed me at her skill, drive and talent for picking up choreography. She tried to beat herself up for her giving up but I wouldn't hear it. She needed to know and I told her she needed to be proud not disappointed in herself! But that's Abigail, I could never be as hard on her as she is on herself. I felt no guilt as a mom for making that call and I could tell she loved me for recognizing and respecting her breaking point. Gosh I love that girl!! The video shows she was doing more then she realized to hold her own among those senior dancers!!!
She had so many more highlights then low points. In her second class the musical theater class at 8:30 in the morning the day after the mini company competed she absolutely shone. I am so thankful it's the one Bri and I took her to together. We were, forgive my southern roots but proud as peach at our little girl. She not only kept up with the teachers pace teaching the broadway number from a show she had been in but she blew us away at how good she performed it. I thought it was just us who noticed how well she was doing until the end and she was selected with other stand out dancers to perform the way "it should be done" to the rest of the huge class. Wow, talk about eyes welling up and beaming with pride. We were ridiculous videoing and patting each other on the backs as parents on the sidelines. It was our moment. Our first of many I hope, some sweet justification of the dollars we are starting to dump into this talent and passion of hers. What better investment is there then to support your kids though. It made our day. Funny tiny little girl she is, don't doubt that Bit! She was ready to take on this world and we weren't the only ones to notice!
It was an unusual week in that we were at the beach on a holiday but totally not focused on food, sun or fun. We were in team family mode. So it was special in a new way. We bonded by enjoying something new as a family. It wasn't about what me and Brian brought to the events, it was Abigail's world. I guess it will be like this for the next 15 yrs. What the girl's want to do is what we'll be doing. Luckily with mom there we had a special night to slip away just the 2 of us for a late night walk in our really beautiful spacious timeshare resort. We went to the bar at the pool for drinks then took a stroll for a while up the waterway. Very typical of the week the heavens decided to open wide on us and we wound up getting soaked through to the skin before we ran barefoot back to our room. It was helpful to reconnect with each other when we were so focused on the kids. It felt good to be just us again even if it was for a brief rain soaked sprint through the resort laughing our heads off.
We had lots of other fun highlights: The water park night and staying in the wave pool with the girls until 10 o'clock. The one beautiful evening on the beach at the state park on the 4th and watching the fireworks off to both sides of us up and down the coastline as the warm salty sun was setting . Enjoying random exhausted late meals at Denny's and Cracker Barrel with my mom and sweet family. Being entertained by all the talent of the show itself and wondering if Abigail will pursue this dream of hers and prove to be as amazingly skilled as so many of the other dancers we watched in awe through the week. Getting to know even better the other members of our own dance team and being pleasantly proven once again that she is in the company of some incredible kids that I am fine with her idealizing and emulating with the examples they set to these wide eyed youngsters who always want a hug and a smile from them. I never saw a single teenager roll their eyes when my girls would charge them opened armed time after time all week.
It's going to be fun to see how this unfolds. Will Chloe follow in her sister's footsteps. She obviously has rhythm and flexibility but will she have the passion for music that Abigail does? I don't know. Will Abigail stick with it when she realizes how hard these kids have to work to get THAT good!? I do know, she got moved up to the junior company this year after a grueling week of auditions. Only one year in the mini company and they moved her up already!! By the time the season starts she'll be the only 7 yr old in that company. What an honor! She made the tap company too in addition to the junior company and also she made the super group for the year. Which is the school's big dance number they use to open the recital and set the tone for the year. It's got 38 kids in it this year and the Little Bit is the youngest in the group. She will bring her sass to the big stage for the first time this year. I'm so excited she did that well. We have a lot of work to do this year. More shoes, more rehearsals, more costumes more tights and bobby pins, but if it's half as fun as our first year we'll have a ball. I've already made our hotel reservations for the upcoming season. God's hands be on us, here we go again!!!
