Poke-a-homa

Did anyone notice I missed a day of blogging?

I did.

It's tough to have a goal of doing something specifically every day.

But I guess in 25 days only missing 2 days is really pretty good for me. That means by the time I have made it to 365 days I should have only missed about 17 days.

Hmm. Not bad.

But I've noticed that if I give myself any leeway that I sort of take advantage of it, so if I say I can miss 17 days this year I might take 15 of them all in two weeks and then I stress myself out trying to not miss anymore days at all from February to December. Then I stress about whether it is still meeting my goal if I miss 30 of the 365 days of UP. Then...

Wew! OK, getting worked up here, people. I've only missed 2 days so far...

let's leave it at that.

Yesterday was really busy.

Kind of a whirlwind of projects, chores and caregiving.

My UP though was totally unexpected...

Remember way back when I took Baby to my play rehearsal on choreography day and I decided that day I would take her to the dance class I had heard they have for special needs kids at The Dance Club here in Orem?

Well... yesterday I finally took them.

All three.

I was doing it, really for Baby, but hoping that Brother and Sister would be interested.

I had brought it up the week before and Sister screamed at me and Brother started to whine, so I new it was going to be one of those things that would go down in Our Life history as a "weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth" day.

It was.

Oh my goodness was it!

I tried to keep the day really low key for the kids most of the day by just letting them hang out and play and non-challantly throwing out how fun it would be to dance today. Of course each time that was met with a solid no, or a quiet whimper, which wasn't, actually, too bad of a reaction so I thought this might go fairly smoothly.

I have been doing this for about 15 years now so I have finally learned better than to just trust my hopes, but to rely on my instincts.

I brought Lindsey along.

Good thing too.

Lindsey walked a smiling Baby and a whining Brother out to the car while I carried my tall, lanky, squirming, kicking, screaming, head banging, name calling 9-year-old and pushed/folded/stuffed her in to the Suburban like I was trying to fit a giant octopus into a mini cooper.

Lindsey and I endured Sister's screams, insults, back seat kicking, and complete and utter derailment while also enduring the hyper-sensory endured melt-downs of Baby and Brother.

Oh.

My.

Goodness.

Sake!

I kept thinking, in my head, I can't believe how crazy I am that even during all this I am staying fairly calm and letting Sister know that we were just going to give it a try and if she didn't like it, we could leave all while trying to sooth Brother and Baby with the consoling I was offering to Sister.

That 5 minute ride seemed like 45 minutes.

Then we got to the parking lot.

I still had to carry Sister into the building so that she wouldn't run off in her complete and total meltdown.

As we entered the doors, which were glass windows so I am sure that our entrance wasn't quite as surprising to those who had been watching us approach them, Sister's screams got louder and echoed in the vaulted ceiling foyer.

Everyone was looking to see how had lost and arm and seemed to be confused to see there was no blood as we entered.

I couldn't find anyone in the office so I had to take my wailing 9-year-old and my whimpering 5 and 15-year olds through the maze of doors that looked like I might find someone of authority in there.

I was trying to find someone because I was supposed to fill out paperwork so they could participate in the class and we had arrived a little early to do so.

Well, because of the tender mercies that occur in Our Life often, the lady in charge could see the struggle I was having trying to hold Sister on my hip and finagle the pen and forms so she just said, "You know what, why don't you just go try out the class and see if they even like it and you can fill this out later."

I was so relieved to know she wasn't like the checker at the grocery store that didn't seem to notice my struggle in trying to pay for my groceries and keep Baby within 5 feet of where I was...

There are people out there who "see" it, you know.

Anyway, we went down the stairs with the still wailing Sister in arm and the still whimpering Baby and Brother tailing behind with Lindsey down a long hallway that contained our family noises with quite a bit of reverb so, of course, everyone waiting in the hall watching their children dance were aghast at the site of our motley crew of raw emotions and pitiful faces.

Then, when we got to the spot where the special needs dance room was located we had time before the class would start. I was worried about this overflow of time because I wasn't sure how the kids would do in that 15-20 minutes of waiting for the thing they were not wanting to do.

But there were windows.

There were windows to watch the ballet class that was currently happening in the classroom across from ours.

All three kids were in awe of the ballerinas and couldn't take their eyes off of them. It was so peaceful as we watched this sweet young girls kick, spin, sashay and leap about the room as if it was no effort.

Then the teacher of that class, when finished, walked across the hall to the room where our special needs kids would be getting taught.

This amazing teacher who has been transforming these beautiful ballerinas was now across the way volunteering her time and talents to work with children who may never have a chance to dance like this. There were also youth volunteer dancers who came in to help.

Sister still would not go in, and made it loudly clear that she would not, but Baby and Brother were intrigued enough to at least go in and try it out.

I thought, for sure, after a few minutes, Baby would start spinning and twirling with the kids in the room but she feel apart after about 15 minutes and I needed to take her out.

Brother, however, wanted to stay and Lindsey, Baby, Sister and I really had a great time watching him learn steps and techniques and even part of a dance routine.

Brother was really excelling in there and couldn't have looked happier or more proud of himself. I have to say that he really tried hard to impress his dance teacher and I loved seeing his embarrassed pride each time his teacher praised him for work well-done.

After class was over, all 5 of us exited the dance room, walked up the stairs, went to the office and got some papers to fill out, then walked out to the car, got in, and it all went well.

Really?

Really!

I'm so excited for Brother to be in dance class!

I am still going to try to get Baby to try it out each time.

...

Today Sister was looking at her yearbooks (She does this often just to write down name and memorize people.) She was in a goofy and humorous mood and saw that the row of pictures on one of the pages was not complete with the last picture that should complete the page or pattern of the others.

So she drew one in.

Made me laugh and I haven't stopped smiling about it yet.

I, also, can't forget to tell you that Sister calls Oklahoma, "Poke-a-homa."

He he he!

                                                                                                                                           Days 24 and 25 of 365 days of UP