Liam's first recital

Liam has been in a Creative Movement/Tumbling class this school year. He loves the Creative Movement part of it, but struggles a bit with the gross motor Tumbling part.  A couple months ago, we learned what weekend the recital for his class would be, and it seemed like a good idea to participate as he was doing so well in class.  Sometime after this we found out Dave would be TDY the following week; he told me he'd see what he could do about not leaving until Monday as he is going to an exercise that starts Wednesday.  He found out a few days ago that he was leaving Saturday (so we had 3 days notice).  The rehearsal and the recital fall during naptime, so none of my mom friends can help watch Ben as their children will be napping.  Others have children in the same program.  My babysitter couldn't watch Ben this weekend.  This left me no other options but to bring Ben to the rehearsal and recital and just hope for the best.

The morning of the rehearsal Ben woke for the day at 5:04am and never went back to sleep.  We left the house at 9am to take Dave to the airport.  Ben napped in the car a bit so we got take-out and went to a park to soak in some sunshine and eat something.  Then we headed to the school.  I was shocked at the amount of cars, knowing the rehearsal times were staggered.  It was chaos inside and Ben was immediately launched into panic, clinging to me.  Finally, Liam was called and looked lost but followed directions backstage.  In the auditorium, Ben was doing fine and then the music started and he flipped out.  He started shaking and climbing up me and declaring he was "all done."  Then he spotted Liam and started pointing and asking "Meme?" and trying to climb on-stage.  Being pulled away resulted in screaming.  Everyone was looking at me.

Then the kids were filed out for photos.  There were two areas for photos--one for a group photo and one for individual.  One of the lights broke so they were only taking group photos.  We had been asked to fill out the order form in advance but I wasn't purchasing any group photos and didn't want the same order if I would be receiving no individual photo.  I had to re-fill out the order form, and while I had two sippy cups, 4 size 5 diapers, 4 pull-ups, two pairs of underwear, two pairs of spare pants, Liam's clothes he changed out of, socks for Liam, two iTouches, a cell phone, wallet, keys, two McDonald's toys, and wipes, I had no pens.  The photographer acted like I had some ridiculous request to borrow a pen.   After that, I went to take Liam's photo at the empty backdrop with my cell phone since I also had no camera.  Ben started running and pulling on the backdrop and the same bitchy assistant yelled "who child is this?" while she was standing less than an arm's length from me.  My look must have said it all as she apologized "Oh, I assumed his mother must be no where nearby?  Why would you let him run like that?  Please take him somewhere else; he is going to take down the backdrop." 

I wanted to point out that this wouldn't have happened if they were doing their job, came prepared, and were taking individual shots.  Instead, I just moved down the hall to change Liam back into street clothing. 

Here are the photos I got:

Here you can see the wild monkey wrecking havoc:

Recital day went much better.  Just before I left, my friend, lesley, called to say that she was going to stay home with her baby while her husband and in-law's videotaped her son's performance and she'd be happy to watch Ben.  I dropped Ben off, though that caused Liam to cry "I need Ben" the whole way to the school.  Then I had to leave Liam in the cafeteria.  He looked so young and little and vulnerable.  I almost couldn't leave him:

Liam did amazing as this 2 minute video shows!  In the end when I zoom in, the girl he is standing behind he has called his girlfriend once.



He did look lost during the finale but did great regardless.  I am so thankful my friend Lesley could watch Ben for me.

My awesome friend,  Rachel photo-edited my photos to enhance the color.  Love them!