Crannie's 1st ever performance

Cran's big show was yesterday afternoon.

I was so extremely proud of my big girl.

She had been so very, very excited for this big day. Faith had been so very excited for this big day. And, Dan and I had been so very excited for this big day. We gave her her bouquet of flowers in the morning, and she told Dan "Daddy, I love you. Thank you so much. They are beauuuuutiful!" Nene and Grampa also got her some flowers, and she thought this was just great.

The show was at Exeter Sr. High School. Cran had packed her backpack full of "activities" to do with her little girl friends. It was so sweet. Tia Rosa had brought her some make-up before the show and she had been in heaven with her body glitter and eye shadow. She took these in her backpack and was putting body glitter on all of her little friends. She had also packed some grapes, tortilla chips, ponies, and crayons with a notepad. Needless to say, all of the little girls were enthralled with Maddie's things and they all kept busy. I got her ready, and it was so strange leaving her when they had to line up for the show. I've never left her anywhere. I was so excited though to get out to the auditorium and watch my Cran in action.

Little Breezer got hungry after the first dance, and Maddie's tap dance was #6 in the first half. So, I went to the back and rocked Abrie as best as I could (didn't work too well!) to try and make it to Maddie's dance so that I could see her. I got teary-eyed when I saw her little shadow being led out to her spot by Miss Melissa. She was always at the head of the line. I felt an overwhelming sense of pride. That was MY little girl in her first show. I didn't care if Abrie was still fussy or not, I rushed down there to see her and was just hit with a flood of emotions. I was just so darn proud of her-- her singing, her dancing, her personality-- just my little Crannie. It seemed as though I flashed back to when she was just as small as her baby sister- her Breezer- and now I was watching my 4-year old Crannie dancing up on stage in front of hundreds of people.

'Waltzing Matilda' was awesome too in the second half. I felt so guilty though that I had to rush so much to bring her out to the auditorium to watch the rest of the first half, and then rush to leave her again after intermission to go feed Abrie and then make sure Beebster was OK, etc. In fact, my one complaint about the entire afternoon was in the form of more guilt that I couldn't be back there right away with her after their ballet dance. We were all exiting the auditorium literally minutes after Maddie's 2nd dance (when I told her I would be back to get her), and we see Maddie coming in to the auditorium all by herself. Her eyes were holding back tears, and she just told me "Momma, I missed you" and almost started crying. I am still furious that nobody realized my Cran had just left the dressing room, and am just relieved that she was alright.

All in all though, it was an awesome experience. I know she will never forget her first stage show. And, Dan and I certainly will not either.

Dress rehearsal

Today was Cran's dance rehearsal for her big show tomorrow afternoon.

I seriously couldn't be more proud of my Cran. She dances so darn well and sings the loudest and does the moves so well. She practices with her Fafey nearly every single day, it is so funny. She just loves all the girls in her class and her beloved Ms Dawn and Miss Melissa. It will be so sad not going to dance class every Saturday morning anymore.

We had been reading her "The Berenstain Bears Get Stage Fright" a lot this week just in case stage fright would rear its ugly head with our first-timer. Not to worry though. She LOVED practicing on the stage, and while the other girls seemed to get extremely nervous and shy up there, Maddie was totally in her element. She is definitely a performer! She is so excited for tomorrow, as are we!

Caballeros, cross eyes, and Coach-y Coach

Cran is absolutely obsessed these days with the movie, "The Three Caballeros." That and "Saludos Amigos" was Faith's Easter movie gift from the Easter bunny, and they just love that darn movie, especially Maddie. She tells me all the time when she watches the parts about Mexico that she would like Nene to teach her how to dance like that, and that she would like to visit Mexico one day. Haha.

I've failed to mention Maddie's 'crazy eyes' that she does now, and has been doing for awhile. She does cross eyes to a 'T' which she then calls her "crazy eyes." They're hilarious, and yet freaky at the same time. She'll tell Dan all the time jokingly, "Daddy, I'm mad at you!" and proceeds to do these crazy crossed eyes at him!

She also has been hilarious in calling Dan "Coach-y Coach" as a joke. The other day he was teaching them both how to play a game of kickball with him at the playground, and she was so eager to please and follow directions. She would say, "Ok, Coach-y Coach" and he would laugh so hard. Now it has progressed to, "put me in, Coach-y Coach!"

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Maddie's relationship with her Breezer is so perfect. She is such a little mother to her baby sister, and tells me all the time that she wants to do things herself with her Abrie. She is so protective and loving to her; it's quite neat the differences in relationships between she and Faith, and she and her Abrie. Abrie quiets down so much when Maddie starts talking to her, and when she is wide awake they have some of the cutest moments together. Maddie tells her and Faith, "we are all going to be best friends forever." It's precious.

Big(gest) sister

I think Cran was made to be a big sister. She fills the role effortlessly.

It's so funny because she tells us all the time that when Beebster was a baby "I didn't like her too much, Momma" and then proceeds to laugh. When we look through old pictures of the two of them together in Faith's newborn days, Maddie seriously was always leaning the other way if I tried to pose them next to each other. It's hilarious. Once Faith started crawling and becoming mobile and interactive with her Dee, the two became inseparable friends. Their bond is everything I always dreamed of for my girls.

Maddie with her Abrie is so different. She dotes on her baby sissy constantly. She wants to hold her all the time. She was sick when Abrie was born, and her voice was so cute when she'd say in the raspy, frogginess of a sore throat: "awww, little Abrie" over and over again. She cried when she would have to leave her baby sissy and I. She LOVES when Abrie is awake and has her eyes wide opened. She imitates everything that I do too, and just had 4 baby dolls all set up on the floor next to Abrie while we "played." She asks all the time for hand sanitizer because she wants Abrie to suck on her finger; she says this is "soooo cute!" I can tell already that Abrie will look up to Maddie just as much as Beebster already does. It will be really neat!

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Maddie was funny about Mother's Day today. She and Faith got out their nets from 'Elefun' and wanted to catch a butterfly for me. Instead, they settled for picking some flowers and I have them in a glass bowl on the dining room table. She noticed also that we have two corn on the cobs left from the last time Dan grilled, and is so excited to peel them tonight. She helped Dan the other night when he grilled, and absolutely loved peeling them. I haven't had nearly as much time to bake with my helper, but yesterday I made it a point to make something with her in the afternoon. She had requested to make lemonade and muffins. We made lemon poppyseed muffins (that weren't very good) and I told her she could use the writing icing to decorate hers, so she loved that.