Crazy days

The last few days have been crazy!

I haven't been able to post because Thing 2 is experiencing some health problems. She's going to be ok, but it's been hard on her (and me). Luckily, she's napping so I have a few minutes to update. She hasn't been sleeping much the last 2 nights. I should be napping with her, but Thing 1 is awake. Thankfully, Scout (the hubs) will be home tomorrow so maybe I can nap then. I will do a better post tomorrow...promise!

Totally off topic, I really want something chocolate and we don't have much chocolate. There is a can of chocolate fudge icing in the cabinet. Is it bad that I considered eating some of it on crackers? I haven't...maybe peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies would be better. Hmm....................................

The Lion King 3D

     This evening, my cousin and I took our kids to see Lion King 3D. The best part of the whole experience wasn't even the movie (which was great, BTW).

     The best part, was the teenage couple that was sitting next to me. It was an 8 o'clock show on a Friday night, but I didn't really think of Lion King as a date movie. But, apparently they did (or she did. She kept telling him, "You said my choice."). Anyway, when they come in and sit down this girl is all over the place. She's laughing and talking (think, valley girl) and just can't sit still. I'm thinking, if she doesn't calm down before the movie starts, we're going to have problems. My kids (who are almost 4 and 2.5) were looking at her like she was nuts as they sat still and quietly in their seats.

     Then the movie starts. We've all seen The Lion King, right? You know the opening scene where all of the animals are headed to Pride Rock for the presentation of Simba? Well, this is what I hear from the (approximately) 16 year old girl sitting next to me.

     "Aww, isn't the baby giraffe so cute!?!?!?! Oh! Look, there's an elephant! And a zebra! Look, peacocks! Oh, I love the antelope. Oh. My. God. Look. At those monkeys!"

     You get my point? I'm thinking "Yay! You've learned your animals!" But I don't say anything. Not yet anyway. Then they show baby Simba. By the "ohh"s and "aww"s coming from the girl next to me, you would have thought that they had just shown the world's cutest baby. This is when I just can't take it anymore. I absolutely can not take 2 hours of this. I expected that there would be kids talking and maybe crying. But I did not mentally prepare for this. I look at her, and as politely as I can, ask "Are you going to do that the entire movie?" She replies, "I'm stopping now. Sorry."

     Good. I can enjoy my movie in the relative silence that has entranced the children and teenagers that are soooooo excited to see this movie. Just when I'm really starting to enjoy it, Simba and Nala go to the elephant grave yard. Apparently the suspense in this Disney movie is too much for this teenager. She's on the edge of her seat, holding her breath. Then Mufasa  jumps in to save the day. "Yay, his daddy is going to save them!"

     At this point, I'm really wishing that I had gotten the seat on the other end of our party, next to the 5 year old that was sitting quietly in her seat.

     Then, Mufasa dies. Yes, it's sad. But did anyone over the age of 10 not know that it was coming? Why yes, the teenager next to me didn't know that it was coming. She is now in full on water works. Tears are streaming down her face and she is crying so hard, she's shaking in her seat. At this point, her boyfriend says to her, "Have you never seen this movie before?" She tells him, through heavy sobs, that she was about 6 the last time she saw it. He gets her calmed down while Simba cuddles with his father's body. Then Scar comes in and messes things up for my peaceful movie experience. Apparently, Scar's "you killed your father" bit was just so terrible that this girl is again, reduced to tears.

     Luckily, there are no more sad parts. For a while. Let me just list all of the other times that she started crying. It'll just be quicker that way.

• Simba, Timon and Pumba are looking at the stars and Simba says that the stars are "all the great kings of the past"
• Simba and Nala are reconnecting during Can You Feel the Love Tonight. "It's just so sweet." she says.
• Simba yells at the sky "you said that you'd always be there for me!"
• Rafiki and Siba are looking in the water and Mufasa's face appears in place of Simba's reflection.
• Simba decides to go back to Pride Rock.

She stops crying to laugh while Timon and Pumba do their hula.

• Simba tells the lionesses that he's responsible for Mufasa's death
• Simba has defeated Scar and is walking up Pride Rock to take his place as king.

     Now, that's a lot of crying. Either, her date really loved her or he was just to polite too leave her butt there. He was very uncomfortable with her displays of emotion. His friends (who were sitting in front of them because there weren't enough seats together when the arrived), kept turning around and laughing at her.

     Overall, the experience wasn't that bad because there became a point when I was just laughing at her. Changing seat wasn't an option because, by the time they sat down, there was no way that we were going to find 5 seats all together. If it was a movie that I had never seen before, I might have been angry. At first I was annoyed, then I was just amused. When the lights came up the the theater, her face was all red and her eyes were so puffy that she refused to remove her 3D glasses. Of course, this just gave the boyfriend's friends something else to make fun of her for. 

     But I will say this, I would rather sit by a teenage couple like them than by one that's cussing up a storm or making out.

Competition, good or bad?

     So last night, I stayed up way too late watching a "Dance Moms" marathon. I had never seen the show before last night. If you haven't seen it, here is my quick synopsis of the show.

     "Dance Moms" follows an extreme (in every way), dance teacher named Abby Lee Miller and about 6 of her students (ages 6 - 13) as they travel to dance competitions across the country. The dance moms are constantly fighting with Abby and with each other. The little girls are cute, good dancers and mostly, spoiled rotten.

     At one competition, Maddie (Abby's most promising dancer, undefeated at this point) meets her "rival". They two girls only talk for 5 minutes, tops. But the other girl's mom keeps saying "Remember, it's not about who wins, it's about who has the most fun."

     Seriously? Am I the only one that thinks that that is crap? If it's not about who wins, then why do you have your 8 year old in competitive dance? Why (by the time they get to age 8) have you spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on classes, private lessons, costumes and travel if it's just about having fun? If that mom seriously believed that, then her kid would be dancing at some mom and pop studio for $40 a month instead of at a nationally known dance company where they pay 10 times as much.

     Also, what's wrong with it being all about winning? Since when was a little healthy competition a bad thing? When did our society get to the point that we need to make everyone feel like a winner? I know that it's been that way for a while, but it wasn't that way when I was a kid and I'm not convinced that making everyone a winner is the best thing for our kids. I want my kids to fight and work hard for what they want. Now, would I still love and support my kids even if they came in last place? You bet, as long as they did their best. If that mom had said "It doesn't matter who wins, as long as you both do your best.", I could have been on board with that. Having fun is important too, however, there are certain arenas to have fun and certain arenas to do your best. In the context of the show, I think that they were way beyond "having fun".

     So, which kid do you think won? The one with the coach that says "Who wants a mediocre kid?" at the beginning of every episode or the one with the mom that says "just have fun!"

Series of unfortunate events...

Gymnastics was just a series of unfortunate events tonight. Thing 1 fell asleep on the way over there and then didn't want to wake up. She finally did and we went inside with just a few minutes to spare. Then, Thing 2 wants to sit with Thing 1 until her class starts. No big deal. What was a big deal, was the ungodly, shrill scream that Thing 2 let out when it was time for Thing 1's class to start and we had to go sit down. I took her outside, where she proceeded to cry for a few minutes. Then, she decided that she was calm and wanted to go back inside. We go in and she's fine. We get almost all the way to our seats when she decides to try a less shrill (but still loud) scream. This time, I just head for the side door. It's much closer to where I was, but it also opens into the parking lot. So, I am holding a temper fit throwing toddler and trying to give her a stern talking while moving away from the door as to not disturb the gymnasts, when a car (that isn't watching where she was going, just like I wasn't watching where I was going), backs into me. No joke. Right into my legs. I guess she looked up right at the last minute and hit the breaks, so I didn't fall and she didn't hit me that hard. But still, I was hit by a car. All of this happens only 15 minutes into a 45 minute class. Thing 2 finally calms down for real, and we make it to our seats. Luckily, the rest of the class passes with Thing 2 only have 2 more minor meltdowns (over wanting to hold a friend's baby). But oh my goodness. During those first 15 minutes, I felt like the class (and the temper fit) was never going to end. At least the 35 minute car ride home there was complete silence. They weren't sleeping, I think that they just sensed that it wouldn't be a good idea to fight in the car.

Run, run, run

Who would have thought that doing preschool at home would be so much work? I didn't think that it was going to be easy but Thing 1 has far exceeded my expectations. Of course, this is a good thing, but it also means that I am constantly running and looking for more things to teach her. More things to occupy her time. Thing 2 has very little interest in going into detail about anything. She'll listen to the overview, then it's off to something else. Unless there's a coloring page involved, of course.

Right now it's 12:15 and we're done with school work for the morning. But, wouldn't ya know, Thing 1 keeps coming and asking me "Can we do more school work?" So, I guess it's off to find more worksheets for her.

Gone mobile...

Life in Texas had now gone mobile. Hopefully I'll be able to update more now that I can update on the go! I am completely starting over. All old blogs are gone. Done. It's time for a new, fresh start. Have a wonderful day everyone!