Greta’s Dance Recital: The Dress Rehearsal

NOTE: I actually wrote this post last night, but was so tired when I wrote it that I literally fell asleep at the keyboard. Yep…it’s been that kind of week. Anyway, let’s pretend it’s very late Saturday night and I am posting this before the dance recital that took place Sunday afternoon. Here’s goes nothing…

Today was the dress rehearsal for Greta’s first dance recital and, man, was it insane. Rushing around getting ready this morning, Mrs. Yeti and I were completely unprepared for the flood of mixed emotions that came over us when we saw Greta in her costume and make-up — she wore hot pink lip pencil and a smidge of blush on her cheeks, nothing too kinder-whorish — for the first time. Mrs. Yeti actually called out to me from the next room: “Oh my God, I am a dance mom…and I’m crying!” I could not have put it any better. I know it was only a tiny bit of stage makeup, but, man, I felt like one of those crazy pageant parents: “Now, you shine real purty for them folks out there, ya hear! I said shine, dammit! Shine!” So crazy…

Anyway, the rehearsal went really well — a couple of the girls in Greta’s class didn’t follow the hair and dress-code, but, nothing major — and we were outta there in just a little over an hour. Which is good, because Greta was wearing panties, not diapers, and, well, you can just imagine what might have happened had she had an accident in her black velvet show dress the day before the show. “No Go-Go Juice for you, Greta! Now wash that paint off your face and git to bed!”

Unfortunately, my pictures and video of the dress rehearsal were pretty lame, so, instead of posting them here, I’ll show you the footage I shot earlier in the week during class. You don’t get to see the snazzy costumes yet, but, the dance moves should be enough to tide you over for a while.

And for everyone who set aside their busy lives (and a whopping $25 admission fee!) to come to the show, thank you in advance for coming. It means the world to Greta to have you all here. And to those of you who can’t be here, here’s hoping this video gives you a little taste of the magic set to unfold Sunday afternoon at 2:00PM. Enjoy!

Happy Father’s Day…from Huggies!

As my own time in diaper-land winds down — yes, save for a few spectacular peeing episodes in the living room, Greta is almost fully potty-trained at this point. Hooray! — I thought it was kind of ironic that one of the best Father’s Day tributes I found online came courtesy of Huggies. That’s right, even Huggies knows that modern Dad’s do their fare share of the child rearing these days and their super-cool photo collage really says it all.

I know I shouldn’t get all teary-eyed over a diaper ad, but, honestly, even before Greta came along, I was a sucker for baby with daddy pictures. And now that she’s here, well, forget about it, I cry about everything to do with kids. Seriously, I’m about as sappy as they come. Urgh…

Anyway, Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. Whether you stay at home or work your butt off to make up for it on nights and weekends…we are all in this together. Saludos, amigos!

“A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!”

After months of talking about it, weeks of seriously trying and loads of rewards, big and small, Greta finally took her first poo in the big girl potty a couple of days ago. I could say it was due to our gentle nurturing touch or us letting her decide when she was ready and not rushing her into potty training, but, the fact is, she did it for a horse.

Yep, contrary to what all the books and so-called experts say, in our case, bribery and rewards totally worked. Frustrated with how slowly things were progressing, Mrs. Yeti printed up a Disney Princess rewards chart, bought an s-load of shiny gold star stickers and got serious. If Greta pulled down her own diaper, she got a star. Washed her hands, another star. Sat on the toilet for a while and even contemplated going, yet another star. And when she actually used the toilet, well, that was usually good for at least a couple of stars and a small reward. To make the rewards a little more interesting, we raided the dollar bins at Target the week before for cheapie gifts that we knew she’d want, you know, Disney Fairy pens and shit, nothing too crazy.

But the grand prize, the big reward for using the big girl potty for Numero Dos, was Maximus, the badass horse from the movie Tangled. And let me tell ya, having a cool prize like that sitting in a box on the shelf in her bedroom worked wonders. She talked about her prize and what she had to do to win it for weeks and then things got even more heated when my Mom moved the horse to the bathroom last week during her visit. Now, every time Greta sat on the toilet she would be forced to stare at that beautiful white stallion just waiting to be played with. Truth be told, we were all forced to look at Maximus every time we used the bathroom, but, he has really pretty hair and he makes cool sounds and stuff, so, no biggie.

Anyway, Thursday night Greta finally bit the bullet, sat down on the big girl potty and let loose with what I like to call the mother of all toddler bowel movements. Seriously, it was a spectacular turd, man. I don’t know who was cheering louder when she pooped that thing out, the chorus of potty training angels in heaven or my wallet: “Hooray! No more expensive diapers!”. Either way, there was a lot of cheering going on in our tiny little bathroom. We could not have been prouder!

But all Greta cared about was that horse. And as soon as she’d washed and dried her hands (two gold stars!) and pulled up her big girl panties (one more!) she ripped open his box and started playing with Maximus. Whew…you never saw a girl love a horse more! It was awesome.

And the best part is that when it came time to poo again the next day, she used the big girl potty again. Totally on her own, with no big reward or anything. Whew…thank you, Maximus, for everything. I can’t wait to brush your pretty hair. 🙂