June 27, 2006
The ballet recital that we have been waiting for and preparing for for SO LONG was on Sunday.
This year I volunteered to be a backstage mom. Last year was such a thrill to be in the audience and see my little girl do her dance, but immediately upon conclusion of the night she had a meltdown. I blamed most of this on the lateness of the hour-it was about 9 pm. She was also 4 years old. This year I decided to try to avoid that and be a backstage mom.
It was actually fun. The little girls were really good, coloring in books and eating snacks. I did my daughter’s hair and makeup backstage and anticipated interest in that, and so brought extra Q-tips so that I could share my makeup with them. Another whole class asked me to do their makeup before they went out, so we started an assembly-line of little blue-tutued girls, and I applied blue eyeshadow and glitter to their sweet little faces.
(this is her with her really close friend from her pre-k class)
Backstage we waited to go on, and I entertained them with silly dances, and then it was time for their performance. I admit, though I was in very close proximity to my daughter, standing in the wings, it wasn’t quite the same as being in the audience, though I am pretty sure no matter where you were sitting, you could see my daughter fix her wedgy, TWICE.
After their performance, I organized a little simon says and hokey pokey to help pass the time. When it was time to go and say thank you to her Dad and grandparents for coming, she had a meltdown. I was pretty shocked, because she was so even the entire night. I then started to remember when I was in junior high and high school, how after a performance I would just bawl my eyes out. I remembered the other day at the audition that I missed, that my reaction was to cry. I think it is just totally natural to need a release after SO MUCH build up. Poor little girl.
She got over it pretty quickly, and we were able to take a few more photos, but I just felt bad that as a 5-year-old she probably doesn’t even understand why she would cry like that.
On Monday, on our way to the violin lesson she said: “Mom, next week (she meant year), at my recital, I want you to be backstage mom again.” I asked her WHY? and she said because I was so silly backstage. But whatever the reason, I’ll take it.
I know you wrote this 5 years ago, but thanks for posting it. I was looking for little girls with blue eye shadow for my 3.5 year old’s ballet recital this week :) Thank you thank you for the pics! I’ve been a little leery of the whole make-up on little girls thing, but now I can see that it doesnt make them look older, just more colorful!