madelyn's night

tonight was all about madelyn. she was beyond excited that "our whole family" was going to come into the dance studio to watch her last dance class. i was excited to have the opportunity to get some better pictures and video. plus, i was happy that matt was able to come and see her class since she has enjoyed it so much.

unfortunately, i forgot her ballet shoes and matt had to run back home to get them. i was fighting back tears as the class was starting and we were still waiting for matt to come back. madelyn was pressing her nose up against the glass watching for daddy to come back with her shoes while all the other kids were warming up as class began. she was so sweet and patient waiting for daddy and i felt so bad that she was having to miss out when she was so excited.

daddy was able to get back with the ballet shoes in about 15 or 20 minutes and madelyn only missed the first 10 minutes of stretching before joining the rest of the class. it was such a treat to have daddy there with us and madelyn loved that he was there to see her dance.

one of madelyn's favorite things to do while passing the waiting parts of class is to hang upside down from the bar - miss sandy does not enjoy that she does that but i did get a picture.

here are some videos from the different sections of the class. some of the videos are close to three minutes but i wanted to share as much as possible.

after dance class we raced home to get madelyn changed while daddy went to pick up some dinner. why were we in a hurry? madelyn had a "big sister" class at the hospital tonight too! we decided that i would be the one that took her while daddy stayed home with mason. on the ride home from ballet madelyn suddenly became very concerned that my belly would "break". i am not sure where this idea came from but she was almost crying she was so concerned. i assured her that my belly would not break because it had practice holding babies like madelyn and mason.

the big sister/brother class was pretty cute. again, mommy was not prepared or at least i didn't get the memo that she was supposed to bring a 'baby' and a picture of herself as a baby to the class. this was not my finest night and very out of character. the good news is that madelyn didn't mind at all. she got to borrow a hospital demo baby; she even asked if she could bring it home.

during the class the kids got to go and see a baby that had been born just today, tour a hospital room, practice changing a diaper, watch a pirate movie about a new baby, and decorate a toilet paper roll to test the size of toys that might be too small for a baby. during our hospital floor tour i saw my doctor and she asked how it was going. i wish that i could have said, yes, let's get going, but, nope, i was just here on a tour...

at the end of the class the kids were given pink "big sister" or blue "big brother" bracelets (madelyn got a blue one for mason too) and several other goodies like a doctor's mask, a card to color for the baby, a "big sister" or "big brother" sign for the hospital door when the baby is born, etc. all in all madelyn had a great time and i was really happy that i was able to spend the time with her.

and that was madelyn's night. love.