Toast 2 Mom

Competitive Dancing

Yesterday I got to sit in Sydney's ballet/tap class to see her practice and do the routine they'll be putting on for her recital in June. 

While  my oldest really enjoys going to dance class, and she loves to dance and show me her moves, one thing became very clear to me after watching her class yesterday. My competitive girl is better fit for sports against others - like running. 

I do think as she's grown, her moving art skills has improved. She has more grace and coordination that she once did. But gotta love her, she is so competitive. When the girls are to practice their ballet moves across the studio floor, she doesn't delicately kick and passe. She basically makes it like a race to make sure she is the first one across the floor. And it's been like that forever. 

She does look like a ballerina - but she's fierce like a track star. 

That Girl Can Run

We've known it for years now, but today her running was put to the test - and the clock. Sydney ran her first timed race today. It was a 1-mile race downtown - the kid version to the city's Capital 10K race which is tomorrow (which I will be running). 

Syd got up earlier than the alarm this morning. She was amped. We picked out her outfit the night before and had energy snacks ready to go this morning. The whole walk to the start line, she was bobbing and weaving like a prize fighter.

Daddio stood with Sydney at the start line. There were about 160 six and under kids who ran. Daddio had her placed about half way or more back in the pack. His strategy was to get her to have the feeling of passing people - and passing she did! Cheekers and I were parked about a 1/2 block down from the starting line to take pictures. Several kids ran by before I saw her. After she ran by smiling, I went back to the finish line to capture the end. 

The winner of the race came in a little over 7 minutes. (These kids are fast.) Recalling where I saw Sydney pass me at the beginning, I assumed I'd have to watch another 30 or more runners go by before I needed to get my camera set to snap a finale shot. But I looked down the road and saw these bright pink leggings come tearing down the road. As my eyes focused I realized 'that's my girl!' 

She was kind of holding her side, but the determination was still strong. The longest she's ever run in one stretch was the 1k she did a few weeks ago. So this was almost double that. 

In the end, Sydney was fourth girl in her age group and tenth overall! So impressed. Her time was eight minutes and 30 seconds. Now if I'm going to be really specific here, Syd actually probably would have been top 3 because she started quite far back. They don't have chip times for the kids. Her time was based on when the race clock started. So, who knows how it all went down officially - but we're still SUPER proud. 

Below are some photos before the race, gearing up for the race and at the end with the final stretch to go.

 

The Ski Report

Well we are back from our ski trip. We headed over to Ruidoso, New Mexico to introduce the girls to skiing - and in many ways snow! Since we've lived in Texas for over three years now, the girls just don't get to experience snow at all. In fact, when we were driving into Ruidoso, it was snowing and Cheekers said, "what's that stuff in the sky." Seriously. The good news is that the resort where we were got 12 inches of fresh snow the day they arrived. For a season that was quite sparce, that was a real gift to us.

The first day the girls went to a ski camp. Sydney lasted the whole time. Natalie ended up getting checked out of the camp early. She was a little slow to warm up to the day. Daddio ended up taking Natalie around for the day. After a few times on the bunny hill, she kept asking about going for a ride on the gondola. Deciding to grant her wish, Daddio took her all the way to the top of the mountain. And the only way down was to ski it. With Natalie between Daddio's legs, they went all the way down! 

The next day they took a one hour lesson which still proved to not be the greatest money spent. In the afternoon, I took Natalie and Daddio took Sydney - and off we went. Considering Natalie was slow to warm up to the idea of skiing, she was actually quite a natural on skis. She was very stable and really understood the concept of keeping them straight and not crossing the tips. Sydney, while older, was probably not quite a natural on skis. It really wasn't until the third day that practice started to pay off a bit. But they both enjoyed it overall - and so did we!

We joined another friend and his daughter for the trip. The place where we stayed had a hot tub. I would assume if you asked each girl what they enjoyed about their trip, the hot tub would top their list!

Here are some photos from our spring break mountain adventure!

 

Babies Kitchen Soccer

In that order, that was our weekend. The Hubby is out of town, and I anticipated a very busy weekend of unpacking into our new kitchen. We are seconds away from being totally complete (but really, when is any house project totally complete?) I was going to spend the weekend trying to figure out what should go where....but bigger duties called.

A friend of ours was scheduled Monday to be induced. Her mother in law was arriving Saturday. But baby had bigger plans. I was always a "back up," but the liklihood didn't seem likely -but it was. My friend has two other children. So on Friday I went over to their house while Mom and Dad bee-lined for hospital. On Friday night I played babysitter to four kids, ages, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Yeah, I ordered pizza.

Saturday life got back to "normal" around noon after we saw the new bundle of baby joy. The girls and I came back home to our own chaos of kitchen clean up. I hoped to get done more than I did, but it's better than yesterday. So I gotta go with that.

Then today was Cheekers' first soccer game. The photo below is when it was a happy time. I have to remind myself, and often, that Natalie is not Sydney. They are different girls, with different interests and different approaches to life and different strategies of living. There were many o days of Sydney's beginning soccer experiences where she stood on the field and stood only. Well, Cheekers has that part mastered. I think she spent more time looking at the dirt on her shoes than at the soccer ball. I am going to mark this one down as "no nap Natalie" and see where we go next week.

It's hard because a) she's three b) she wanted to do soccer two monhs ago when we signed up, but that was two months ago c) she's three. The Hubby and I are clear on one thing, you sign up, you finish it. And finishing it means we expect you participate along the way. Natalie is a more headstrong individual. I sent a text to the Hubby as he couldn't make this first game saying, "it's going to be a long soccer season." I hope I'm wrong and next week is better. But before the cold front blew in, here is a happy #49!

P.S. I'll try to be better blogging this week. I've been kind of a writing slacker.

 

Fore!

The girls have been getting some golf lessons this week from Papa! So far, no major injuries. There has been a bit of swinging like a Louisville is in their hands....but technique is improving.

 
 

Toothless Heat Winner!

It's 11:30 a.m., and we're back home after our early morning wake up to our first swim meet.

In all the prep and hype yesterday for our first meet today, I did not get an opportunity to share that we now have another missing tooth. Sydney lost her 5th! tooth yesterday, and I continue to be perplexed how a child that has not even started school yet has lost so many teeth. But I guess it is OK. She's always been advanced. :)

So our toothless shark awoke with the best of them today for the first big meet. It was early, I'm not gonna lie - but it went by so fast - and was SO much fun. Watching these little kids (and big kids too) fly through the water is very exciting. Sydney had two races today - 25 meter freestyle and 25 backstroke. I am a gloating parent when I announce that my child was a heat winner today. There were several heats for a single race, but my girl took a ribbon for her heat in freestyle! Yay!! The backstroke was not as strong - BUT - she did not touch the ropes.... a very big deal for her age.

So, first meet - nicely done! Below are a few pictures of my toothless girl from yesterday, gearing up for her race today and showing off her first ribbon.