Dancing Queen

My apologies for the late post today. Normally I post earlier, but the past few days we were a bit busy.

This weekend my daughter had her dance recital. The recital features groups of all ages and is really fun to watch.

This recital was divided into three “themes.” The first was about the water – surfing, the beach, the ocean, etc… The second was more serious tap, ballet, and jazz. The final section was a salute to “the greats.”

Ella dances in the first and third sections with her group. Her first song will make the Beatles fans who read Happy – Yellow Submarine. All the gals hopped into a bathtub on wheels that was made up like a submarine. As the song starts to play, they are wheeled out and exit the sub. They moved to the front of the stage and do their dance. It was priceless!

Saluting the “greats” was a fun theme. Ella’s dance was saluting Betsy Ross with You’re a Grand Old Flag. I’m not sure if there is supposed to be a kick in it, but she did one! She looked like she is having so much fun.

The other dancers saluted Babe Ruth (Centerfield – John Fogerty), Henry Ford (Life is a Highway – Rascal Flatts), Nat King Cole (L-O-V-E), Albert Einstein (Weird Science), Dolly Parton (9-5), The Big Band Era (Sing Sing Sing), Gene Kelly (Singing in the Rain), Alexander Graham Bell (Pennsylvania 6-5000 and a few I can’t remember.

She had two shows – one last night and one this afternoon. Last night, a boy from her preschool class was there to watch and even brought her flowers! Honestly, I thought I had more time before boys started wooing my daughter!

I didn’t want to post without permission, so I had to cover her friend’s face. She was surprised to see him.

Andrew’s speech therapist, who we’ve become very close friends with, was also there with her daughters. Ella calls them her big sisters. They brought her a beautiful butterfly corsage and a baby rose bouquet.

She had to wear the wrist corsage when she woke up today. She put her flowers in a vase. They are next to her bed. On her nightstand.

Today, Nana and Pa brought Aunt Nikki to the show. Andrew stayed the night there last night, so they brought him to the show.

A two hour dance recital and a three year old don’t work well together. We brought his tablet, but he didn’t last long on it. He was kicking the poor woman’s seat in front of his. He also kept asking if it was over.

I wound up bringing him out to the lobby so he could run around at intermission. They had a feed of the show on the monitors in the lobby, so I got to watch her second performance on TV.

Aunt Nikki, Nana, Pa and Andrew with Ella

I’m glad Sam and I got to watch it without interruption last night. We are so proud of her.

They featured two seniors from their studio during the show. One of them had been dancing there since she was Ella’s age. Perhaps she’ll keep on dancing. I hope so!

Cinco de Birthday

Ella had a fun birthday! She thanks everyone who sent birthday wishes.

She had really hoped to go to the Children’s Museum, but it was closed. So we decided to take her down to Build a Bear where she could pick her own animal, stuff it and pick an outfit. She loved every second.

Despite the many bears, she chose to Build a Cat! The lady at the stuffing machine had her step on the pedal to shoot the stuffing in the kitty. She then got to pick a heart and put it inside the kitty. After she was stuffed, Ella went and got her a rainbow tutu and rainbow shoes to match!

Andrew got Chase from Paw Patrol. He had to get the uniform, the boots, and the hat and “pup pack.”

You can’t put a price on fun or kid memories. But this was an expensive trip! I can’t imagine my folks ever spending almost $200 on two stuffies!

They loved it, though and they will always remember that! On the way home we had to stop by Nana and Pa’s house to pick up her “Mermaid tail” cake. Nana made it out of cupcakes and she was thrilled with it.

After dinner and cake, Ella finally got to open her gifts. She got a huge box of beads and such to make necklaces, rings, bracelets and more. She also got a princess game.

Basically, the game is like the game Cootie. You spin the spinner move along the board and collect your earrings, your ring, your necklace, your bracelet and finally the crown. Collect all of those without having the “cursed ring” and you win.

When your birthday girl asks you to play … you do!

Ridiculous!

Tuesday morning, she couldn’t wait to show her class her cat! Her teachers were nice enough to let her sit up front and tell her story about building the kitty and she passed it around. I was there because she wanted me to make sure that the cat made it home safe. She wanted her to be ok when she got home from school.

Five years! Wow. It is so hard to believe. It seems like just yesterday that I was posting about her being born.

I am so glad she had a good day and I hope she’ll always remember it!

Tomorrow – You’re Only A Day Away

I am really looking forward to tomorrow. It’s a pretty big day.

As I write this, my daughter Ella is heading to bed as a three year old, but will wake up as a four year old. Over the past week, my Facebook memories have been loaded with posts from 4 years ago wondering when she was going to make her debut into the world. I feel like it truly was yesterday that she was born.

This afternoon, Sam took her to the party store to pick out her “theme.” She wanted Barbie stuff. We have Barbie plates, napkins, banners, and table cloths. Nana was requested to make a Barbie cake for her birthday. Sam sent me a photo of it – truly amazing!

She is going to love it!!!

We are going to spend the day at the museum, go to Nana’s for cake and ice cream and finally, we are heading to the Daddy/Daughter Dance.

When she found out the dance was on her birthday, she was super excited. I am, too! She has a beautiful dress with light pastel colors on it.

I have a light blue dress shirt and I think I have a pink tie somewhere.

Last year we had such fun. The theme is Candyland. I can’t wait to spend the evening with my baby girl!

It doesn’t seem possible that she is turning four! My wife had me sign her up for T-ball tonight. Looks like I’m going to be taking some time off to be at those games this summer!

Back – But Not 100%

Despite the few blogs I had scheduled to be published, I really only got to jump on here to blog a couple times over the past few weeks because of Covid. So I figured I would fill you in on what’s been happening …

Daddy Daughter Pirate Adventure

Prior to my Covid diagnosis, I was planning on taking Ella to a Daddy/Daughter Pirate adventure. I took the Tuesday off and worked Monday night instead. The Sunday before, I didn’t really feel great. I felt like I was getting a cold. Ella was diagnosed that Friday with a double ear infection. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to go because she was sick.

Monday I felt a bit worse and took a home Covid test. It was negative and I went to work. While at work, I just felt stuffed up. I was coughing a bit, and just achy. I went home and slept. When I woke up, I was still hoping to get to go to the Pirate adventure, however, I just felt like crap. My wife talked me into going to Urgent Care, where they swabbed me and gave me the Covid and Flu diagnosis.

It rained Monday and they called Tuesday to tell me that they had moved the pirate adventure to the next day. It didn’t matter, I wasn’t going to be able to go.

Mother’s Day

I’m glad that I planned ahead this year. So often, I wait until a couple days before to go out and get cards and presents. This year, I ordered Sam something online and had hoped to get her a few other things, but thanks to Covid, I was only able to give her the gift I ordered.

I saw this Facebook and thought it was perfect. It was a framed sign, printed on burlap that said, “My greatest blessings call me Mommy.” Under that I was able to put the kids names and birthdays. It came out better than I thought.

Because we both were in quarantine, we had to place our grocery order online and have it delivered. Because I couldn’t get her a cake, Sam ordered one and we had it after dinner. We were able to spend a little bit of time outside in the sun, hoping the extra vitamin D would help with the Covid.

The Kids

Thank goodness the sun has been out a lot this week. The kids have been loving being outside on the swings, playing in the yard or taking brief walks around the neighborhood.

Nana stopped by with some clothes she got for the kids on day and found Ella some “Princess Dresses.” She puts one on and then takes it off so she can put the other one on. I’m not sure what she was doing when I snapped this picture, but I love it. I can’t wait to be able to dress up for a daddy daughter dance!

Earlier this week, Ella was outside with Sam and heard a bird. She told Sam it was a “Nutpecker!” Sam did a double take and asked her again what kind of bird it was. Again, the answer came back, “Nutpecker!” I’ll just add that to the list of wonderfully funny things my daughter says. Nutpecker = Woodpecker.

Andrew turned 7 months old this week. He’s been crawling all over the place and is doing everything he can to stand up. He will pull himself up with the help of couch cushions, toys, pillows, you name it. He is able to stand for 30 seconds at a time, but then usually falls. It drives us crazy. Case in point:

Ella got a Doc McStuffins doctor kit. It comes with the typical doctor toys – stethoscope, otoscope, fake shot, thermometer, bandage and bag. Take a look at the shot, which is the second from the right in the picture below.

See how it is flat? Ok, good. Andrew was standing up next to me on the floor. I was sitting and he had pulled himself up and was standing. He quickly turned and fell and faceplanted right on the corner of that shot. Almost immediately, under his eye (at the top of his cheek bone) began to bruise. Then it began to swell. There was a huge bump under it. At first I thought he broke his cheek.

With 30 minutes before the Urgent Care closed, Sam ran him up to get checked out. He had a hematoma under his eye. Basically, it was bleeding under the skin. So he got his first shiner.

We were told to call his doc and follow up. The doc stated that she didn’t need to see him, but we should have him looked at by an eye doctor to be sure nothing was wrong on the inside of the eye. So he also had his first visit to the eye doc this week.

The good news is that the eye looks great and he will be fine.

He followed up with the Orthotics folks today about his helmet and they said he is progressing so well that he probably will be able to get the helmet off in a couple weeks. This is fantastic news, since we were planning on him having it on through July.

My Crazy Co-Workers

I was cleared to return to work today. The afternoon tech was off, so when I walked in I was the only one in the building. When I walked into the tech room, I was greeted with a masterpiece created by my co-workers.

They basically went through my Facebook page and found every ridiculous picture of me and created a “Covid Keith” board. It certainly made me laugh. I also realize that I make a lot of silly faces. There is a story behind the Alfalfa picture that I will share another time.

I suppose things are sort of getting back to normal-ish.