So Sorry !

So, I have 2 things for which I need to apologize. I'll get to the second in a little bit, but first I really need to apologize to my parents.

Dear Dad and Mom, I am so sorry for all those years that you faithfully attended my dance recitals, choir performances, and band recitals. While my childhood naivete caused me to believe that you really did want to be there to hear 20 middle-schoolers squeak their way through "Hot Cross Buns" on their recorders or to sit through 5 classes of other people's kids singing to finally hear my 1 minute solo, I am now betting that the experience ran a close second to getting your teeth drilled.

I didn't know. I claim ignorance. I am sorry.

But now. Now, I know better.

I loved going to see Claire sing in her preschool performances the last 2 years. We never expected it to be really good, but at that age, the kids are all so darn cute, and you can always count on at least one kid to be pulling her dress over her head, another to be picking his nose, and two more to be pinching each other to get the audience laughing.

Sadly, this is no longer true.

I can't really explain why, but for some reason, sitting through a 2-hour Kindergarten/First Grade music performance was not at all fun.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVED watching my girl singing her little heart out, but the rest of it . . . ?

It's probably the fact that she is in a combined First Grade/Kindergarten class, so her entire class sang with the first graders. And the first graders only got 4 songs, but then we had to sit through about 8 songs that the Kindergartners sang, or tried to sing, rather. And then there were the countless "speaking parts" which were mostly mumbled or whispered into the microphone.

My non-enjoyment may also have to do with the fact that Shawn and I spent much of our time trying to wrestle Ben to the ground so that he wouldn't make a scene. He was SO over it after 5 minutes. Watching his sister sing was not at all what he planned to do with his evening.

It all brings back memories of my grade school days when I vividly remember a younger sibling in the audience standing up at the end of our band performance and yelling, "NO MORE MUSIC!"

I hear ya, kid. I hear ya.

Furthermore, now that Claire is in "real school," the audience has gotten much larger, which means that unless you camp out for days in advance to get prime seats, your pictures of the performance end up looking like this:

or even worse, this:

Blurry-faced kids with demon eyes. SWEET!

Now, beyond the fact of seeing my girl sing her heart out AND silently mouth along with each and every speaking part the other kids had, I actually was looking forward to seeing her play her instrument (unfortunately, this wasn't until the VERY LAST song of the night!). She was the ONLY kindergartner given this job, and we are super proud of her.

However, and here comes my second apology, because I have a new camera and because our disk drive is malfunctioning on our computer, the video I shot of this moment is sideways.

I know. I'm sorry. But I just had to get it on here. Hopefully, I can get it fixed soon.

So, tilt your left ear to your shoulder and enjoy my girl keeping the beat! (I know, this will probably be running a close second to getting your teeth drilled. It's only about a minute of torture. I promise. :-)

You can view the video by clicking on this link.

My absolute favorite part is when she reminds the boy next to her when to play at the end.

A little control-freak after my own heart.