The chunky monkey & the ballerina

Baby brother is 2 months old today. We took him for some immunizations and found out exactly how chunky our monkey is. 12 lb. 10 oz. and 22.75" long. So that is the 50th percentile for height and 80th for weight. Yup. He's a phat boy - or a fat boy. However you put it, the boy has moobs. And is perfectly healthy. I wish I could be that overweight and be considered perfectly healthy!!!! He is smiling (no pics of that yet) and cooing and in general is just happy. As long as we feed him every 1 1/2 hours, he's fine! We have started feeding him rice cereal mixed with pear juice at night so that he'll sleep longer than 2 hours at a time. He LOVES the rice cereal and will now sleep for a 6 hour stretch. He still wakes up starving, though. It's so funny to hear such a hollow noise come from his belly as the first few gulps of milk hit it! Seriously, though. Could someone explain to me how WE got such a chunk? We love our little man!






Now for my rant. Big sister had her recital a couple weeks ago. I didn't get a good video because little sister wouldn't let me put her down. So I had to take the video from my seat. For those of you who don't know, I am SHORT. So the camera is focused on other people's heads instead of the stage. Little sister also kept pulling on my arm. We did pay for the professional video, so I was only getting a video for Big sis to show her Daddy that night. He had to work and she wanted to make sure he got to see. She is the third from the left, and if you're watching closely, at about second 49 she falls. Don't blink, 'cuz she got right back up!!! Her ballet slippers were a little wet from the disastrous trip to get inside the building. *Warning!!! Rant ahead* I arrived at Thanksgiving Point with my children, ages 5, 2 and 6 weeks, wondering how I was going to get us all inside without getting drenched as it was raining very hard. Fortunately, the south side of the building had ample parking very near the doors. There were no signs warning me not to park there because the actual entrance was on the other side of the building. So I parked, got all my kids out of the car, and hurried to the doors. To my disgust, they were locked. Signs were posted asking people to enter on the other side. Why could this not have been printed on the ticket? Put a sign in the parking lot, not just on the doors, so that I don't waste my time parking farther away! Having no choice, I hauled my children through the rain and lightning to the north entrance. Fortunately, my parents showed up at that same time and were able to take my two smallest children inside. There I was informed that my 5 year old ballerina needed to enter the stage through the back door - on the other side of the building. Outside again. No clearly marked signs again. Someone standing outside directed me to a rather rocky path. I asked if she was sure that's where I needed to go, she said yes. . I then carried my 5 year old back into the rain and down the rocky path, almost falling several times. I was thinking that surely nobody in their right mind would ask people to walk this way and expect to not be sued! I arrived in an area filled with air conditioning units and the like. No stage door, again no signs telling me where to go. Not wanting to be anywhere near electrical equipment in the rain and lightning, I turned and made my way back down the rocky path again. I went inside this time and the lady sitting behind the table informed that I could not take my daughter up the front of the stage, that I had to go around to the side. I informed her I'd just been outside and there were no signs directing me where to go. She told me I'd gone the wrong way, that I needed to go all the way around and find the stage door and that for safety reasons I could not take my daughter through inside. Safety? With a torrential downpour and lightning outside, inside was less safe? I ventured outside again and was finally able to find where I needed to go. By this time, my daughter and I were both completely soaked. My daughter was shaking from being wet and cold and when I sat her with her class she told me she didn't want to dance, she was cold and wet. I calmed her down and she decided to stay and dance. I then had to go back around the building in the pouring rain to the appropriate entrance. As I came in, I saw another mother coming in with her ballerina. The lady behind the table told her where she was supposed to go, and then said "Well, but it's raining so hard, maybe I should let you through inside." That was infuriating. I'd spent an extra 5 minutes in the rain, my daughter was backstage shivering, and NOW it was okay to bring your dancer through inside? Thanks a lot. I spent the duration of the recital in pain because, since I am still recovering from having a baby, I should not have been carrying my 40 pound 5-year-old around.

After the show, I found Husband's parents. My father-in-law is disabled, paralyzed on the right side from a stroke. My mother-in-law informed me that she pulled into the handicapped spaces on the south side of the building. They, too, discovered that the doors were locked. She was a little upset that someone would lock the doors that were intended to be used by the handicapped. Fortunately, someone was right inside the doors and let them in. It would have taken my father-in-law a good 5 minutes to walk all the way around to the north entrance.

If you made it to the end of that rant/story, congratulations. I was really irritated (obviously) and sent an email to the owner of the dance studio letting her know how ridiculous their system was. I have since received a formal apology from them. Other than that, the recital really was lovely and Big sister really enjoyed dancing on stage. She and the other little girl next to her just kept going when another little girl got scared and just stood there crying. I was so proud, she remembered the whole dance! She is a delightful little girl and I just love her!