Dancing With the Stars?

We know Riley will never be on American Idol or The Voice, but Dancing With the Stars?  That's a possibility, the girl has moves!  (And there really is music playing, for some reason my phone didn't pick it up but she has the end of "Despicable Me" on and she's dancing to that!  And that's not Mr T in the background, it's "The Next Food Network Star")

Mad Moves

Jacob has got some mad dance moves! ;)

Gumball Style!

Riley has gotten into Gangnum Style, which she call "Gumball" Style.  I guess PreSchool C kids listen to and dance to it at day care so they've started letting PreSchool B in on the fun (at least that's the story Riley tells me).  I walked in one day with my friend Jessica and we see about 12 3-4 year olds dancing to the song.  Riley's friend James even twirled her.  It was the cutest thing ever and both Jessica and I were kicking ourselves for not having our phones with us, not that my phone would have opened the video app fast enough to record it! I got Riley to show us her "Gumball" moves at home! 

Call Me Maybe

Riley is obsessed with Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" and I have to admit I kind of like it too.  And it's wa more appropriate for a 3 1/2 year old than Nicki Minaj so we go with it!  It all started at the disasterous dance recital.  When she was back stage one of the older (like Jr High age) girls kind of took her under her wing and "Call Me Maybe" came on and ALL of the girls were singing the words to this song and since then she's been obsessed.  She walks around the house singing it and requests it all of the time on my phone.  Watch for the air guitar at the beginning!

First Recital

Sunday was Riley's first dance recital.  It was quite the production and Riley was so excited about it all week.  Her Nana and Poppy came up for it and it's about all that she could talk about for weeks.  Wednesday we had her dress rehearsal and she did great, she followed her teacher Miss Jessica and did all the moves and loved being on stage.  When she was done she wanted to do it again.  Of course me being the hot mess of a mom of two that I am forgot my good camera and my video camera nd just had my iPhone.  Big miss on my part!  But I was highly optimistic for Sunday.  Well, the actual recital was a huge fail.  About 3 or 4 acts into the show, which was held in a huge auditorium, I got the "Will Riley Zimmerman's mom please report backstage."  I took off, I don't remember my feet hitting the floor, all I remember was turning around and seeing Jacob's bottle roll down the aisle (Marc was holding him thank goodness).  I sprinted, like seriously, I don't know how because I haven't run since before I was pregnant with Riley so if you do the math that's about 4 years ago and ran backstage.  She'd been complaining all weekend about a tummy ache so I seriously thought she had an accident and I had no idea how I was going to fix that situation.  Turns out Riley had a case of good old fashioned stage fright, which I think was magnified by the fact that she was coming down with the stomach flu.  She had been crying for me before they went on stage so they wanted me to calm her down.  I calmed her down enough that we went to the side of the stage with the other girls but she still wouldn't go out there.  They told me I could go dance with her.  Um, big fat no chance!  I didn't need to be on stage with three 3 year olds doing ballerina bear with about 100 people watching me stand there!  Then Miss Jessica said she would dance with Riley.  Nope, Riley didn't want that either.  I finally convinced Riley that it was ok to be scared but she needed to go try it and if she still didn't like it she could run off stage and I would be waiting for her.  So she lined up, looked up, started crying and ran off stage to the sound of the entire audience going "aw" and the show went on without her.  They held it for a few minutes but there was no way I was getting her out there.  It took a good 1/2 hour to calm her down.  She went on stage for the finale but in the arms of a teenage girl.  The dance place was so nice (she does dance through her school so I've never really met them) and they held her CD in the machine and had the girls do the dance after everyone left for just the families which of course Riley had no issues doing.  They video taped it so it would be on the DVD, which was so nice of them.  And her Marc thought he was getting out of the $40 DVD!  But despite the performance fail, Riley looked darn cute!!!  I missed the whole show but Marc and my parents said Jacob did great!  He watched the whole show and barely fussed, he loved watching all of the girls dance!

At rehearsal on Wednesday

Rehearsing

Loving being on stage

Ballerina Bear

A bun for the ballerina!

Riley and her teacher Miss Jessica

Riley and her bestie Bella

With Nana and Poppy

Handsome Pants got dressed up for the even

Brother/Sister post-show love

So proud of her flowers from Mommy and Daddy

Starships

So Riley's new song request is Nicki Minaj's "Starships," I know probably not entirely appropriate for a 3 year old but it's always on the radio when we go to and from day care.  The other day we were driving home and it was on the radio and I look in my rear view mirror and I see Riley with her hands in the air, bopping her head and singing along.  At first I thought she was waving so I asked who she was waving to and she said "I'm not waving, I'm dancing."  Well that was enough for me to egg her on the rest of the night so she walked around singing "Starships are meant to fly, hands up now touch the sky." Thus the hands in the air.  She's not singing in this video but the dancing is the best, I couldn't resist the dancing.

My Girly Girl

Riley's day care has a lady come in every week to teach dance.  We decided to enroll Riley and have her do dance on Thursday mornings at school with her friends rather than trying to go to another scheduled activity on the weekend.  Riley couldn't be more thrilled to be enrolled in dance!  Last week she missed class because she was sick and it was a huge, fat temper tantrum!  This week found her healthy and little miss was so excited she could barely contain herself, especially since her new tap shoes arrived Wednesday night.  So Thursday she got to wear her dance outfit and it was by far the easiest drop off in history!  No tears, no long goodbyes, no begging for me to stay.  Just "Bye mom, have fun today!"

Peeps

Riley is obsessed with marshmallows.  When she has to go potty she tells us "Riley go potty on toilet.  Riley 2 marshmallow."  She makes it very clear on her expectations of marshmallows.  So we were in Target the other day and I saw some peeps and I was like "ooo, yum and I bet Ri would like them too since they are marshmallows."  I forgot how utterly sugar coated they are but the damage had been done, they were on our counter and they had been spotted, so I gave her a 1/4 of a Peep, yes 1/4 of a Peep.  Apparently this is what happens when Riley has a 1/4 of a Peep and we turn on her CDs of her music from school!   (Oh and for the record, in the second video Riley is saying "stand up" to Marc, not "shut up," it took us a while to decipher that phrase of hers.) 



Muppets.

Have I mentioned that Riley is obsessed with the Muppets?

All Aboard Choo Choo Train

Riley has been obsessed with saying "All aboard choo choo train" lately, it's a song that comes on sometimes after Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse and lately she just wants me to fast forward to the end of Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse to see if her Choo Choo Train song is on.  She hasn't seen it all that much so I'm thinking maybe they play it at school too.  2 days later and about 10 episodes of Mickey Mouse's Clubhouse we still didn't find the song so I decided to check online, you can find everything there right?  :)  Sure enough there on YouTube was her song from "Choo Choo Soul,"  Riley isn't so much interested in the rest of the song, just the beginning.  Marc and I were cracking up, this is the one video he got where I wasn't dying from laughter! :)  Riley has MAD dance moves!

My Cali Gurl

I bought the new Katy Perry CD on Friday (one of my Black Friday purchases) so Marc and I decided to turn it on and listen to it during dinner tonight. Riley totally loved the techno version of "California Gurls!"



Pardon her hands free eating at the end!